First game is hardest for the Raptors
Toronto has never opened a series with a win at home
The crowd is at its loudest and most passionate, O Canada rings a bit louder and it means a bit more, and thousands of people without tickets are crowding the outside of the arena. Everyone feels it.
It’s special, more intense, more electric when the Toronto Raptors open the playoffs at the Air Canada Centre, an atmosphere that is different from any other.
And then the Raptors lose and the edge is taken off.
Every time they have begun a playoff series at home — as favourites, as kids, as veterans, as whatever else you can be — the Raptors have ailed, a Game 1 loss that momentarily dampens the enthusiasm across the city.
They have rebounded, beating the Indiana Pacers and Miami Heat from behind last spring. And they have lost, swept aside by the Washington Wizards two years ago, ultimately beaten by the redclad New Jersey Nets back in the 2000s and New Jersey’s cousins from Brooklyn after that.
The one thing the Raptors are now is tired of wondering why they can’t do the right thing when the post-season opens and win the first game.
It’s impossible to single out a reason because the circumstances have been so different year to year but this group, veterans mindful of past failings, seems more determined to change that trend.
“We learned every type of way you can learn, from being swept to being an inexperienced young team playing against the most veteran team you can go against in Brooklyn that year to going to the Eastern Conference final, six games,” DeMar DeRozan said Thursday. “The experience that you gain from that is damn near everything you can get out of the playoffs other than a Finals.
“So going into Saturday’s game, we’ve got to keep that mindset of understanding we know how hard it is to win, especially that first game. Go out there, be locked in.”
The Raptors once again have homecourt advantage and open their best-ofseven series Saturday evening at the Air Canada Centre as solid favourites against the Milwaukee Bucks. But history has shown them that, regardless of experience or inexperience or youthful exuberance or the talent of the opponent, playing the right way is a surefire way to win.
“Over-preparation, over-thinking and not coming out and playing to your identity; that’s one of the themes we had today, keep it simple, play to our identity,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said after the team went through an extended film session and a walkthrough at its Biosteel Centre practice facility.
“But at the same time, you have to have the experience and knowledge of making adjustments and understanding what teams are trying to do to you and taking that away.
“That’s where I think experience does come in.”
There is no doubt this is the most experienced Raptors playoff team since the grizzled 2001group extended the Philadelphia 76ers to a seventh game of the conference semifinal. DeRozan, Kyle Lowry, Patrick Patterson and Jonas Valanciunas have been around forever it seems, Serge Ibaka has played in 90 NBA post-season games and been in an NBA final in his career, Cory Joseph has played into late June with the San Antonio Spurs, P.J. Tucker has a game and a personality that’s immune to the pressure and the “moment” of the NBA playoffs.
“I think the experience from last year is a huge help,” Casey said. “And we thought that from the year before. Again, we’ve just got to go out there and do it and not overthink it.”