PAIN OF PLAYOFF HEARTBREAK WON'T LAST
Crushing defeat tough to swallow, but future still looks bright for Raptors
While writing about Raptor killers of playoffs past earlier this week, I mentioned the particular dagger that was Lebron James' game-ending shot in Cleveland in 2018.
Can't say I expected it to be repeated so soon.
The kill shot that Joel Embiid executed against the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday night had some notable similarities to that ruthless Lebron finish of four years ago. James had received the ball in the Cleveland end of the court, and Pascal Siakam, then a young bench player, mysteriously let him get out of the corner, from where he raced down the court, elevated, and hit a floating leaner to end the game.
Embiid did a lot less running in making his grand play on Wednesday, but his attempt was also bafflingly easy. The Raptors put no one on Danny Green as he inbounded the ball, so he was able to wait for Embiid to come open off a dodgy screen and fire an accurate pass, which the big centre took, turned and released for the basket that gave Philadelphia an overtime win.
The bucket put the Raptors in an 0-3 hole in the series, a deficit that has never been overturned in NBA history. The loss stung all the more for the home side, given that it had played very well for long stretches in the first playoff game in Scotiabank Arena in three years, building a 17-point lead at one point and not trailing at all until overtime.
And again, that was similar to four years ago, when the Raptors had been down by 16 points late in the game, roared all the way back to tie, seemed like they might actually make a series of it — and then were hoofed right in the metaphorical nuggets. A 1-2 series deficit still gives cause for optimism. An 0-3 hole requires a miracle.
But that's where the similarities to the two death blows end. That Game 3 loss in Cleveland was funereal. The Raptors, after two straight series losses to Lebron and the Cavs, had reshaped themselves into a 59-win team that was the top seed in the Eastern Conference. They had incorporated a new offence under assistant Nick Nurse that was less reliant on the isolation skills of Demar Derozan — more “modern,” in the parlance — and they had backed up president Masai Ujiri's vow that they could get better from within rather than blow the whole thing up.
The Lebron shot put an end to that thinking. There was a concert in Cleveland between Games 3 and 4, and so off-day interviews were conducted in a bar in the arena's concourse. It was a strange setting in which to assess yet another doomed season, especially one that had shown such promise. Derozan, who had been on the bench for the Raptors' stirring comeback in Game 3, was painfully downcast. No one had any answers. Within days, coach Dwane Casey would be fired, and within weeks, Derozan would be traded in the biggest move in franchise history.
The aftermath of Embiid's dagger is far less gloomy, or at least, it should be. This version of the Raptors hasn't been repeatedly banging its head against a Lebron-sized wall. It was coming off a 27-45 season and was widely expected to be a team that could maybe fight for ninth or 10th in the East and the Play-in Tournament. Vegas pegged the Raptors for a 37-45 record after an off-season in which they traded Kyle Lowry and drafted Scottie Barnes, who was no one's idea of a ready-made NBA product.
They won 48 games, and jumped seven spots in the East standings, having wildly exceeded expectations even before the playoffs began. That doesn't make the events of the past week a whole lot easier in the present.
Four years ago, a heartbreaking Game 3 loss felt like the denouement of an era. Now it feels much closer to the beginning of one. The Raptors played themselves into a situation no one expected them to be in so soon.
In the end, they showed they weren't quite ready for it.