Raps clinch playoff spot . . . with a little help from Knicks,
BOSTON— The news didn’t elicit a reaction of any kind, really.
A ho-hum, perhaps, but no significant excitement, no gleeful acknowledgement, no public recognition of any sort right off the bat.
The Toronto Raptors are in the playoffs for a third straight year, and all it really means is things now get real.
“I know that feeling of going home and having to sit and watch everybody play,” DeMar DeRozan said after the Raptors dropped a 91-79 decision to the Boston Celtics here Wednesday night.
“When you have something to look forward to, these games in the next couple of weeks, that’s when we’ve got to realize we’ve got to tighten this up for the real thing.”
The Raptors earned a playoff berth despite their own loss when the Chicago Bulls were roundly beaten at home by the New York Knicks later Tuesday night.
The news came as many of the Raptors were already headed to the bus and eventually a four hour-plus flight to Houston, but there would have been no celebration anyway.
Still seeking the first 50-win season in franchise history, the Raptors have been businesslike in their journey through the season since it first started.
The playoffs are not a surprise, they are an expectation, and to punch their postseason ticket means nothing.
The good news is that when the playoffs start, the Raptors will have a much more regular rotation than the mishmash they were working with against the Celtics.
Kyle Lowry got the night off because of a sore elbow, and Patrick Patterson was still sidelined with an ankle injury. The return of Jonas Valanciunas was welcome but Toronto looked a step out of sync all night.
“It’s day and night,” DeRozan said of the difference between the group that lost to Boston and Toronto’s regular rotation.
“I think every team, when they have key players out, the team is going to be some type of different. We’ve just got to get accustomed to that — if guys want rest or guys are injured the next couple of weeks.”
The decision to sit Lowry because of a sore right elbow came down minutes before tipoff and gave Cory Joseph his second start as a Raptor, the 46th of his NBA career.
Carrying a bit more of an offensive burden — there were no stretches where he was the beneficiary of playing alongside Lowry and DeMar DeRozan — Joseph struggled offensively, as did many of his teammates.
He was just 4-for-13 from the floor, part of a 36 per cent shooting night from the Raptors.
The trickle down effect of Lowry’s absence was understandable, with others being asked to do a bit more than usual. Some nights it works — a week ago in Milwaukee, Toronto responded brilliantly to a rest night for DeRozan — while some nights the adjustment isn’t as quick or as seamless.
DeRozan was held just 6-for-16 shooting from the floor and only got to the free throw line nine times, leading Toronto with 21 points.
“They beat us every which way,” coach Dwane Casey said. “You don’t play with force and play through the physicality, you’re not going to be very successful against a team like that — they’ll grind, hit, hold — and you have to play through that.”
Lowry’s sore elbow is not thought to be serious — he went through the team’s shoot-around Tuesday morning — and keeps with Casey’s philosophy that good health is paramount heading into the playoffs.
“Right now, health for me is probably as important as continuing to try and climb up and catch Cleveland (for first in the East),” Casey said Tuesday morning.