Jurassic dark . . . season over
But there’s no shame in losing to LeBron and Lowry delivered
In the end, there was no need for the ticker tape, no call for the championship parade — not even an en masse road trip to a Game 7 in Cleveland that would have extended Toronto’s wild playoff joyride another glorious night.
But Friday’s 113-87 loss to the Cavaliers in Game 6, when you put it in the context of 21 years of Toronto’s mostly sadsack NBA history, amounted to an unprecedented conclusion to a pro basketball season.
It was probably the first time in Raptors playoff history that a run ended with a feeling that the team had come somewhere close to maxing out its potential — a different, more dignified way to go out. All in all, a Raptors squad that compiled the fourth-best regular-season record in the league was only sent on summer vacation after its first-ever run to the postseason’s final four. A Raptors squad many expected to be swept by the LeBron James and the Cavaliers grabbed a pair of wins in the Eastern Conference final.
On a night that saw a tireless Kyle Lowry engineer a late charge that turned a 21-point deficit into an edge-of-your-seat must-see until it wasn’t, you could honestly say there was nothing to be ashamed of. In many previous years, there often has been.
A season ago, to pick a top-of-mind example, the Raptors were swept in the first round by the not-so-elite Wizards. And that, really, was where the road to this campaign’s great success began. Lowry, the man Raptors coach Dwane Casey calls the “head of the snake in Toronto,” didn’t allow last spring’s failure to rest lightly on his shoulders. Thanks in part to an offseason spent rebuilding a too-soft frame, the 30-year-old Lowry played his 97th game of the season on Friday, including 77 regular-season matches and 20 postseason ones. And even if he couldn’t deliver another victory in front of the home crowd, he kept pushing until the Cavs pulled away for good. What looked futile at times, once Lowry reeled off a series of go-for-broke three-pointers in the third quarter, looked up for grabs.
“I’m not ready to take a break,” Lowry said before Friday’s game. “I could keep going and going and going.”
He played like he meant it. And all of Raptorland felt the same way. But if the faithful were expecting their beloved No. 7 to deliver a Game 7 — the way he produced a 35-point, nine-assist gem in a seventh-game victory over the Miami Heat in the second round — Friday’s task proved too big.
LeBron was simply too superior, racking up 33 points, 11 rebounds and six assists. And Cleveland’s blitzing defence was too effective in making Lowry defer to teammates who, especially in the first half, couldn’t drill the open shots the Cavs dared them to launch. Toronto missed 10 of its first 12 three-pointers, this while Cleveland made 10 of its first 15. And in a lot of ways, that was the story of the exit.
But that didn’t stop Lowry from trying to will his team to a win, reeling off 18 third-quarter points en route to a 35-point night. With DeMar DeRozan adding 20 points on 18 shots and Toronto’s bench chipping in all of 13 points, it wasn’t nearly enough.
Lowry wasn’t perfect on this deep spring run. He lived through a crisis of confidence that had him shooting therapeutic jump shots into the wee hours during another seven-game marathon against the Pacers in the first round. He lived through inconsistencies. But he never ceased trying.
“I play bad, I play good, and I play bad, I play good,” Lowry said before Friday’s game. “(But) I’m happy . . . to be able to talk to you guys and be here and play basketball.”
If improved body composition was last off-season’s project, maybe the coming break will see Lowry go to work ironing out his inconsistencies. It’s all relative, mind you, and he’s been steady enough to achieve more than one rare feat. Lowry was named to the all-NBA third team. It’s an under-the-radar honour, as these things go. Far more prestige is granted to the players who are named to the NBA’s East and West all-star teams. But the
LeBron James was simply too superior, racking up 33 points, 11 rebounds and six assists, and Cleveland’s blitzing defence was too effective
all-NBA team, the one that’s voted on by sportswriters and broadcasters, is a more exclusive club of 15 players. Only two other Raptors have previously been named to it. Vince Carter made the second team in 2001and the third team in 2000. Chris Bosh was a second-teamer in 2007. It’s a big deal. And the Air Canada Centre faithful offered up a brief standing ovation on Friday night when the nod was announced during a stoppage in play.
Only a few years ago, when GM Bryan Colangelo was fired while expressing a vision that a team built around Lowry and DeRozan could prove effective, it would have seemed far-fetched that such a team would find itself in Game 6 of the Eastern final. Only a few years ago, when Lowry arrived in Toronto with a reputation as a difficult underachiever and was nearly dumped by GM Masai Ujiri in a trade with the Knicks that was nixed at the 11th hour, it would have been farfetched to imagine him being considered among the league’s top 15 performers.
Lowry, for his part, called the honour “a group award . . . a great accomplishment for our organization.”
It is. So is the 2015-16 season, even as it ends.