‘Angry’ Raptors confident they can bounce back

GAME DAY: BOSTON VS. TORONTO, 2:30 P.M.

TORONTO — The morning after their biggest loss of the season, the Toronto Raptors were angry.

The Raptors dropped a 112-94 decision to the Boston Celtics in the opening game of their Eastern Conference semifinal series — Toronto’s fourth loss to Boston in five meetings this season — and the mood at Monday’s practice was “not good,” said coach Nick Nurse.

“We’re not happy and we’re a little pissed off and we should be. We’re not proud of anything we did [Sunday],” Nurse said. “You’ve got to kind of live through that, right? You’ve got to live through that until you get another chance for the ball to go up and try to ride it.”

Can anger be a good thing ahead of today’s Game 2?

“I’d much rather be holding hands and skipping rope after a win, but this is where we find ourselves,” Nurse said.

A big plus, Nurse pointed out, is that the Raptors have proven they’re capable of quickly flushing a loss. They traditionally bounce back well after a bad game. The Raptors had a pair of three-game losing skids this season, plus lost backto-back games just one other time.

In last season’s historic playoff run, the Raptors lost their opener to a weaker Orlando team only to roar back to win four straight in what Nurse has said was the turning point of the entire post-season.

“Our mood today doesn’t affect [today] much, it’s when the ball goes up that we’ll find out what we’re going to be like,” Nurse said. “We usually do bounce back though. We’re a team that’s bounced back a lot, so hopefully our historical reference will matter.”

Monday marked the first day players could see their families, who recently checked into the NBA campus at Walt Disney World. The Raptors travelled to Florida in late June, so haven’t seen their families in more than two months.

“Just excited,” said guard Fred VanVleet, who has two kids with partner Shontai Neal, a daughter Sanaa and son Fred Jr., who was born during last year’s conference finals.

“I miss my family. Family is huge for me. I think the last time I saw them was Father’s Day (June 22). It will be good to see everybody. And right on time after getting our butts kicked, so that’ll kind of take my mind off of it for a little bit, and then I’ll get prepared and get locked in for the game.”