OUR GREATEST SEASON. THE END.
In the end, there is a difference between having LeBron James, and not. In Toronto’s last game before he was drafted No. 1 13 years ago, Cleveland and Toronto both tried their damnedest to lose in a half-dead Ohio arena, to improve their odds. Toronto lost the game; the Cavaliers won the lottery anyway. It changed everything.
Now, 13 fascinating and complicated years later, LeBron is headed to a record sixth straight NBA final with Cleveland’s 113-87 win over the Raptors in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference final. The Raptors could have done more: they could have made shots, defended better. They could have won the lottery 13 years ago, while we’re at it. But then, LeBron would have probably left by now, and not come back.
And that’s how the greatest season in Raptors history ends. Toronto was the only Eastern Conference team to beat Cleveland in a playoff game, and they did it twice. They compiled the fourthbest record in basketball, and made the final four. They just couldn’t go any higher. No shame in any of it, really.
LeBron had 21 points at halftime, and finished with 33 points on 13-for-22 shooting, 11 rebounds, six assists, one steal, three blocks. It was dominance.
King James and his court prevailed in Game 6, but Raptors gave their fans a magical playoff ride
His teammates — Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love and the others, in a comfortable orbit — made shots. Too many Raptors missed. They fought, tried. Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan tried.
But LeBron was there, waiting, ready. He is bigger, faster, stronger, smarter, history. Toronto cut the lead to 10 in the fourth, and LeBron pushed it right back. Earlier in this series, Raptors adviser and Hall of Famer Wayne Embry, the former Cleveland GM, said, “Like in the ’90s, my nemesis was Michael Jordan, and now here we are again, and here we are again, I’m with Toronto, and we have to face LeBron.
“I’ve seen ’em all — Russell, Michael, Wilt, Kareem, Magic, Bird — and he’s right there among them.”
This is life in the Eastern Conference at this stage of history. Toronto dragged its way here, and forced Cleveland to win the series. But you make shots or miss them, and Lowry’s run came too late. The supporting cast wilted. Finally, as Kyle went, the Raptors did not.
And the Cavaliers had LeBron, who is built to be an NBA star: Peerless, massive athleticism paired with a brain that decodes the game, and hunger. There are maybe four or five NBA players who can move the needle like him: Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Kawhi Leonard. Maybe Anthony Davis, if he ever gets healthy. You can’t just go and acquire them. Make shots, miss shots, but this is the real difference.
“A lot of people are making it seem like we were facing adversity,” said veteran Cavaliers forward Richard Jefferson before Game 6. “We haven’t faced adversity yet.”
They weren’t worried. LeBron wasn’t worried. He knew Cleveland was better, and he was better.
So LeBron James will go to a sixth straight final, and his reign continues. Before the game, Lowry was talking about this ride — this sixweek, agony-and-ecstasy, makeand-miss, tension-and-release ride, unlike anything this franchise has ever delivered — and he boiled it down to simple things. “I’m just living, every day, every hour, every minute,” he said, grinning. “I’ve played bad, I’ve played good, I’ve played bad and played good. I’m just living for the day and enjoying it. That’s it.”
That was the playoffs for Toronto, in which record numbers of Canadians watched games: two years ago the Raptors topped out at just over 900,000, and this year the high end was at least 1.8-million.
This was the first time in a generation that the Raptors provided actual success. This was a good year for basketball in Canada.
Now comes the annual afterlife, and the bigger questions. Someone else will make Bismack Biyombo rich, probably. The frontcourt needs an upgrade regardless. The smart money is on the franchise trying to re-sign DeRozan, even at a max salary.
He is flawed, but finding a superior asset for the same money isn’t likely. Dwane Casey stays. Masai Ujiri isn’t likely clambering back down into the 45-win muck on purpose.
This team has no obvious route to jumping up to the championship contender rung, because it requires the next level of star, and they cannot be bought. This was probably about as high as the Raptors could fly. Nothing to do but stay good, and wait for a chance to get better.
For 20 years the conversation around the Raptors always circled back to the same things: How could they be irrelevant, how could they fail, how could they screw up?
For 20 years this team found a way to squander its promise, despite developing a fan base that had somehow become one of the most devoted in the NBA. When it ended, they chanted “We The North.”
And then this year they were still playing as late-May thunder rolled through in the afternoon. Cleveland has come to call itself The Land, and the ESPN documentary on the city’s sports failures was called Believeland.
They have a team they think has a chance to be worth the pain.
For 21 years Raptors fans have waited for this team to be worth it. Win or lose, they were.