‘This time around we’re more prepared’
A year after losing to Nets, Raptors are back in playoffs with new mental approach
There is one simple reason the Raptors should be able to better deal with the intensity, the clamour, the atmosphere that surrounds the NBA playoffs this time around.
Things couldn’t be worse than they were a year ago.
“We had no clue,” DeMar DeRozan says of that opening game, a home loss to the vastly more experienced Brooklyn Nets. “I’ll be honest: we had no clue.” This time around — starting at12:30 Saturday afternoon against the Washington Wizards at the Air Canada Centre — there can be nothing about the in-arena electricity that catches anyone by surprise.
“We were just playing on a high, everything was going so fast, we were winning games and before you know it, we’re seeing the crowds, we’re seeing all the white shirts, we’re seeing national television cameras, we’re seeing thousands of people outside?” DeRozan recalled. “We’re not used to it, we’re not used to it at all.”
“Everything, for damn sure, was new to me.”
If there is one significant difference from a year ago, it’s in the team’s mental approach. There is a more businesslike feel around them now. No one, at any level, is giddy.
“It’s amazing,” coach Dwane Casey said, “because last year everyone was so excited. We had this energy going into the playoffs, this year, it’s ‘oh, we’ve done it so many times.’ ”
That can’t be seen as anything other than a positive heading into the best- of-seven series.
The two youngest members of the starting five — forward Terrence Ross and centre Jonas Valanciunas — were nowhere to be found at times against the Nets. This time around, they simply seem more comfortable.
“It’s an every-possession-counts kind of thing, you just have to be ready to play really good basketball,” said Ross, who admitted he was “a little bit” overwhelmed to start the Brooklyn series.
“But as the series went on I got a little bit better,” Ross said. “I’m just going to be more comfortable this time, and that’ll help a lot.”
The Raptors lost Game1to the Nets a year ago, immediately handing back their home court advantage. It’s become a rather bad franchise habit to have to work from a post-season deficit, because only once in team history — to start the 2001 Eastern Conference semifinal with the Philadelphia 76ers — have they jumped out to a 1-0 series lead.
That’s a major reason Toronto has won just one playoff series in its 20year history — and that was in a bestof-five set.
But now everyone is a year older, and presumably a year wiser, and more comfortable. It’s basically the same group, with a lone new addition — Lou Williams — and he’s been in 37 playoff games in his career.
Ross and Valanciunas may only have seven post-season appearances, but that’s big.
“I can’t even imagine (Ross) last year,” DeRozan said. “I had some kind of success to where I played in the all-star game, I’ve been around that type of atmosphere but even my first game, it was ‘let me watch this and see what went wrong.’
“We had JV, his first playoff appear- ance; Amir (Johnson) first time being a starter on a playoff team; Kyle (Lowry), all of us. It was new to all of us and everything happened so quick, I think this time around we’re more prepared. We understand what we have to do, we understand what our crowd’s going to be like, we understand how the road is going to be so it definitely helps.”
Casey sees a different approach as well. Perhaps because the Raptors were basically assured a playoff spot around Christmas because they were far and away the best team in the Atlantic Division, there wasn’t a lot of hype or celebrating when the inevitable occurred.
To the coach, it’s another step in the evolution of the franchise.
“I look at it as a precious opportunity and I encourage our players too,” he said. “We’re not in the place where we can skip a step of the process, we’re still a growing team. First of all, get to the playoffs, work to get through the first round.
“It’s amazing how one year changes the approach, I’m excited as a coach. I’m proud of our team, I’m proud of what they’ve put into it and I’m pulling everyone else to feel the same way.”