Raptors bet on youth against veteran Nets

It’s NBA playoff basketball, not ‘rocket science,’ says 24-year-old DeRozan

The Raptors’ DeMar DeRozan is all of 24 years old, about as far from a grizzled NBA veteran as one can imagine. Yet he approaches the first playoff game of his life as if he’s been doing it forever, entirely confident, not at all intimidated and fully accepting of what’s to come when the Toronto Raptors face the Brooklyn Nets at the Air Canada Centre on Saturday afternoon. He’s heard the chatter and read the stories and been told the tales about how different it will be, how much more intense it will be, how some think he might cower from it. And he laughs. “I mean, it ain’t like it’s rocket science,” he said Thursday afternoon. “Everybody keeps talking to me like . . . it’s rocket science or I’ve got to know trigonometry or something. You just figure it out. You just go out there. “I’ve been playing this game long enough, I’ve been in the league long enough, been in a lot of situations. So it shouldn’t be hard.”

And all the worries about the vast difference in post-season experience between the Raptors and Nets are summarily shrugged off.

Oh, it is there and will be one of the major talking points between now and Saturday’s12:30 p.m. tipoff to the best-of-seven series.

Brooklyn’s expected starting lineup — Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, Andrei Kirilenko, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett — have combined for 417 post-season starts, which is precisely 417 more than Toronto’s Kyle Lowry, DeRozan, Terrence Ross, Amir Johnson and Jonas Valanciunas have.

It’s an indisputable fact that the Nets are more experienced, but does it really matter?

“I mean, we’re all in the same league, man,” said DeRozan.

“Honestly, that’s how I look at it, man. Credit to them, they did what they did but we play against guys who are experienced all season, honestly.

“So when people bring that up to me, you know, they did that, now we’ve got to go up against them.”