RAPTORS MAKE IT VICTORY IN THE SIX!
Last year was a wipeout. It was a sixgame wipeout, but nobody thought the Toronto Raptors were going to dethrone LeBron James. It wasn’t close. C’mon.
The Raptors beat the Bucks 92-89 in Game 6 last night, advancing to play the Cleveland Cavaliers. For perhaps the first time in franchise history, the Raptors gave themselves a break. Nobody has stopped LeBron before the NBA finals since 2010. He runs this league, and plenty of teams have taken doomed runs at the throne.
When the Raptors made those trades at the deadline, more than anything, this was what they had in mind. Is Cleveland, with its sagging defence, vulnerable? Is Toronto, with its depth, ready?
It was a year ago that Luis Scola sat on the bench before Game 6, with the Raptors down 3-2 in the series to the eventual world champs, and he said: They didn’t take us very seriously in Game 3, and not much more seriously in Game 4. He looked up at the scoreboard, and grimaced. “This,” he said, “will be hard.”
This will be, too, but . . . maybe. Time to try again.