OFF TO A FLYING START
Raptors tip off new season with home victory over rejuvenated Pacers,
Opening night for the Raptors isn’t quite the theatre, but it’s a production. Jersey giveaways, the class warfare of T-shirts tosses, fireworks. They had to cancel the festivities in the square outside because the weather in Toronto was, as the great Steve Rushin once wrote, like driving into a sneeze. But inside, the hype was cranked up, mostly by shouting over the PA. Toronto’s fans, after all, are a strength of this franchise.
But all that is the set, and it doesn’t work without the actors. Last season this franchise cratered in the playoffs, and Kyle Lowry hit the ground first. His decline over the last three months of the season were a mystery even to those in the organization, and his legendary stubbornness became a weakness, along with everything else. Anger and embarrassment coursed through the organization. For a time, everything was on the table.
Then Lowry spent a summer running hills in Las Vegas and god knows what else, and came back to Toronto as lean as a fighter jet. There seems to be some consensus that a bad back was likely a big part of Lowry’s problem last year, so apparently now he endures screamingly extreme Pilates workouts with regularity. He’d been Good Kyle throughout the preseason, and looked great. He is the third highest-paid player on this team, but he’s the best of them.
And as the 2015-2016 season begins, it’s clear that coach Dwane Casey is under some pressure, and the idea of progress for this team is under some pressure. Lowry isn’t quite the entire Raptors, obviously. The bench has been bolstered, and DeMarre Carroll can defend as advertised, and Jonas Valanciunas seems emboldened by his new contract. There were even bench sightings in the fourth. That’s good.
In this game, though, the Raptors played like the ball was square for most of the first half, like they were strangers. DeMar DeRozan spent too much time on his solo forays, passing when there was nothing else to do. Late in the third quarter, it was Lowry who pulled them back into a lead. In the fourth, Lowry was great again, and often.
But at the end it was DeRozan who scored two critical baskets, with Lowry on the other side of the floor. It worked, even against Paul George. Lowry finished with 23 points — 16 after halftime — six assists, five turnovers, and watched DeMar make the biggest shots. The Raptors won.
Great. But if this team is going to live and die, it’s got to live and die with its point guard, more often than not. Kyle Lowry, at his best, is a heroic journey, against much bigger odds. Corey Joseph got a warm ovation from his hometown, and has made a wonderful impression within the organization. He will push Lowry every day, honestly, the way the Spurs taught him. He could be headed for bigger things one day.
But if this team is going to do anything you’ll remember, Lowry has to be that mountain-scaling underdog he was for the first three months of last season. And it can’t stop, not for long. Lowry worked screamingly hard this summer, and hopefully he has enough for the long haul. Like the Raptors, it can’t just be for three months. He has to be Good Kyle, beginning to end. Remember what he said when he first met the media, lean and not as mean? “I feel like a million bucks, like I always do.” Let’s hope.
Before Game 1, Casey was asked if last year’s finish places more pressure on this year. It would seem obvious that it does.
“I mean, last year is last year,” said Casey.
“Last year is in the rearview mirror. We’re facing this year now, and we haven’t done anything this season. We have to earn our way back to where we were last year, in the playoffs and beyond. So that’s what we’re trying to do now. Last year motivates you, but we don’t go every day, oh my god, we got beat, swept in the playoffs.
“Every place I’ve been, we’ve been through something. Dallas, we got swept in the first round by San Antonio. Seattle, same thing. But there’s growth, there’s process. In Dallas we won the championship, in Seattle we got to the Finals. So again, it’s disappointing, it hurts, believe me it hurts. But we can’t live our life thinking about last year. This is a new team. I’m more nervous and excited over how this team is going to come together than last year.
“So I’m not dismissing last year, but . . . we’ve got to move forward. Life goes on. The NBA season goes on.”
Well, it’s started. And if everything goes right for the Raptors, it won’t truly matter until the end.