Five Things We Learned About the Raptors in Round 1
Five Things We Learned About the Raptors in Round 1
In a wild round one series, the Raptors taught us a few things about themselves.
In a wild round one series, the Raptors taught us a few things about themselves.
And… exhale.
In a series that often felt more like a continuous war than a series of basketball games, the Toronto Raptors emerged victorious in six games - in better shape (mentally) - than when they arrived.
This was a series with a riveting cluster of ebbs and flows. After games’ one and two at home, it felt like a game 3 win in Washington would guarantee a game 4 win.
But alas, game 3 slipped through the cracks, as did game 4. All of a sudden it’s 2-2, right back where we started.
Thankfully, you all know how this ends.
Throughout this bumpy ride of the first round, I believe we emerged in better shape, and perhaps learned a few things about this team - and the Eastern Conference - that we may not have known before.
Fred VanVleet: The Crucial Cog of the Bench Mob
I could write a whole piece about this, but I’ll restrict it to a few quaint words.
Fred VanVleet might just be the third most important player for this Raptors team - behind Kyle and DeMar.
Seriously. He’s the engine that powers the bench unit and gives it the necessary horsepower to run rampant over opposing lineups.
His absence in games 1 through 5 was evidently apparent after watching game 6. The bench unit didn’t look the same until then, and it’s clear that it was due to no Fred.
Tell it like it is, Steady Freddy.
The East is Ridiculously Balanced
You go through the list - one through eight - and I wouldn’t feel at ease in any seven-game series.
The Celtics, as injury-riddled as they are, are going to push a team to their limits no matter what. An extremely well-coached and defensive-minded team.
Philadelphia might be on track to becoming the best team in the NBA.
The Cavs have LeBron.
The Pacers just pushed LeBron to Game 7.
Miami is the funkiest and grittiest team in the NBA. They’re a complicated puzzle to solve and if it weren’t for Whiteside laying an egg, they would have made their series with Philly a little more interesting.
The Bucks as a seven-seed seems like a criminal underachievement. Maybe it’s coaching, or maybe it’s chemistry, but I feel like any team with Giannis can win any game on any given night.
And lastly, the Wizards. Through a season of dysfunction, they proceeded to push the first seed to six gritty games. Their Achilles heel was their depth, and that could very well be changed next year.
Outside of the conference, we sit, but it’s not the kind of throne that allows you to coast. Even Houston dropped a game to the Wolves’, who only made the playoffs off of a deciding game 82 against the Nuggets.
What this series showed is that you can never be too sure in any playoff situation. Believe me, as Raptors fans we should know this. Every team that made the playoffs rightfully earned their spot, and no matter how dominant you may look during the regular season, the playoffs will forever be a different game.
Hopefully, it’s the kind of game we’re getting used to.
OG is the Role Player Every Championship Team Needs
I wrote a piece about OG after game 2, simply because I was enamored with how he was playing.
The 20-year-old 23rd overall pick of last year’s draft was so good for us this series in so many little ways.
I’m not going to regurgitate my piece from last week, but his off-ball movement, energetic defense, stone-cold coolness and unwavering confidence all showed in this series. He’s truly a player who’s wise beyond his years.
His line of 7.8/2.2/0.5 was outshined by his efficiency of 59.3/46.7/88.9.
He’s not going to steal any headlines or catch the eyes of any box score watchers, but those who’ve been watching him all season and in this series will surely understand the significant impact he has on this team.
You put OG on any other team in this years’ playoffs and I guarantee you that he’s playing a significant role with them.
In a rookie class stacked with ridiculous talent, OG has quietly become a pillar of success with the Toronto Raptors.
Our old habits still exist, but we’re ever-aware of them now
Sadly, we all know the story:
A very close game, late in the fourth, we need a basket, and what happens?
Stagnant, iso-heavy offense.
This is still an issue for us, and one that definitely reared its ugly head a few too many times this series.
We’ll spend an entire game moving the ball, running the break and getting good shots, only to throw it all away in the finals few possessions with a stagnant offense that doesn’t suit our team.
This might not be the fault of DeMar of Kyle - it may be the lack of scheme or structure in the late game.
But we’re as aware of this now as we’ve ever been. In Game 6, luckily, we never transformed into this distorted version of ourselves.
Maybe that’s Fred? Maybe that was a concerted effort by the players and staff to not break into the bad habits of old.
Going forward, this is something that we’ll need to keep doing in order to achieve late-game success.
This a Battle-Tested Team
When we choked away Game 7 against the Nets, it was a lack of experience.
When we were swept by the Wizards, it was because Kyle and DeMar are bad in the playoffs.
When we beat the Pacers in 7 games, the Heat in 7 games, then lost to the Cavs in 6, it was because LeBron and company were too good.
When we beat the Bucks in 6, then lost to the Cavs in 4, again, it was because LeBron and company were too good.
Along the ride of the past years’ playoffs, the narrative of Kyle and DeMar being duds in the playoffs followed us along the way.
At first, the narrative stings and perhaps plagues your performance. Then you conquer it, realize that the narrative will resurface at any moment of weakness, then finally learn to block it out.
The Raptors can’t play the lack-of-experience card anymore. They’ve been in so many big situations, so many high-pressure games and have emerged victorious many a time, but have fallen short even more.
Importantly, the core of this team (Kyle/DeMar/JV/Casey) has been through this all together. The pieces who’ve come along to form this first seed team (OG/Serge/Fred/Delon/CJ/Pascal/Jakob) have either been there before (Serge, CJ), or are only playing in their first or second playoffs.
The young guys have the necessary role models to follow. When you drop a big game 4 and have to come back home tied 2-2 you have your vets to follow. The guys who have been there and done that, suffering through the bad and staying level-headed during the good.
Although this was a bumpy series at times, it served as yet another learning experience for this battle-tested team.
We’re starting to get that look of a team that won’t be rattled, and I like it. It won’t be all sunshine and roses in the playoffs; no matter how good you are there will always be tough games.
But I feel like this team has been through hell and back, and with each battle, they get a little bit better.
It’s been a wild first round for a lot of reasons, and thankfully we have a few days off to recoup.
I can’t wait to see how we come out of the gates in round 2.
And… exhale.
In a series that often felt more like a continuous war than a series of basketball games, the Toronto Raptors emerged victorious in six games - in better shape (mentally) - than when they arrived.
This was a series with a riveting cluster of ebbs and flows. After games’ one and two at home, it felt like a game 3 win in Washington would guarantee a game 4 win.
But alas, game 3 slipped through the cracks, as did game 4. All of a sudden it’s 2-2, right back where we started.
Thankfully, you all know how this ends.
Throughout this bumpy ride of the first round, I believe we emerged in better shape, and perhaps learned a few things about this team - and the Eastern Conference - that we may not have known before.
Fred VanVleet: The Crucial Cog of the Bench Mob
I could write a whole piece about this, but I’ll restrict it to a few quaint words.
Fred VanVleet might just be the third most important player for this Raptors team - behind Kyle and DeMar.
Seriously. He’s the engine that powers the bench unit and gives it the necessary horsepower to run rampant over opposing lineups.
His absence in games 1 through 5 was evidently apparent after watching game 6. The bench unit didn’t look the same until then, and it’s clear that it was due to no Fred.
Tell it like it is, Steady Freddy.
The East is Ridiculously Balanced
You go through the list - one through eight - and I wouldn’t feel at ease in any seven-game series.
The Celtics, as injury-riddled as they are, are going to push a team to their limits no matter what. An extremely well-coached and defensive-minded team.
Philadelphia might be on track to becoming the best team in the NBA.
The Cavs have LeBron.
The Pacers just pushed LeBron to Game 7.
Miami is the funkiest and grittiest team in the NBA. They’re a complicated puzzle to solve and if it weren’t for Whiteside laying an egg, they would have made their series with Philly a little more interesting.
The Bucks as a seven-seed seems like a criminal underachievement. Maybe it’s coaching, or maybe it’s chemistry, but I feel like any team with Giannis can win any game on any given night.
And lastly, the Wizards. Through a season of dysfunction, they proceeded to push the first seed to six gritty games. Their Achilles heel was their depth, and that could very well be changed next year.
Outside of the conference, we sit, but it’s not the kind of throne that allows you to coast. Even Houston dropped a game to the Wolves’, who only made the playoffs off of a deciding game 82 against the Nuggets.
What this series showed is that you can never be too sure in any playoff situation. Believe me, as Raptors fans we should know this. Every team that made the playoffs rightfully earned their spot, and no matter how dominant you may look during the regular season, the playoffs will forever be a different game.
Hopefully, it’s the kind of game we’re getting used to.
OG is the Role Player Every Championship Team Needs
I wrote a piece about OG after game 2, simply because I was enamored with how he was playing.
The 20-year-old 23rd overall pick of last year’s draft was so good for us this series in so many little ways.
I’m not going to regurgitate my piece from last week, but his off-ball movement, energetic defense, stone-cold coolness and unwavering confidence all showed in this series. He’s truly a player who’s wise beyond his years.
His line of 7.8/2.2/0.5 was outshined by his efficiency of 59.3/46.7/88.9.
He’s not going to steal any headlines or catch the eyes of any box score watchers, but those who’ve been watching him all season and in this series will surely understand the significant impact he has on this team.
You put OG on any other team in this years’ playoffs and I guarantee you that he’s playing a significant role with them.
In a rookie class stacked with ridiculous talent, OG has quietly become a pillar of success with the Toronto Raptors.
Our old habits still exist, but we’re ever-aware of them now
Sadly, we all know the story:
A very close game, late in the fourth, we need a basket, and what happens?
Stagnant, iso-heavy offense.
This is still an issue for us, and one that definitely reared its ugly head a few too many times this series.
We’ll spend an entire game moving the ball, running the break and getting good shots, only to throw it all away in the finals few possessions with a stagnant offense that doesn’t suit our team.
This might not be the fault of DeMar of Kyle - it may be the lack of scheme or structure in the late game.
But we’re as aware of this now as we’ve ever been. In Game 6, luckily, we never transformed into this distorted version of ourselves.
Maybe that’s Fred? Maybe that was a concerted effort by the players and staff to not break into the bad habits of old.
Going forward, this is something that we’ll need to keep doing in order to achieve late-game success.
This a Battle-Tested Team
When we choked away Game 7 against the Nets, it was a lack of experience.
When we were swept by the Wizards, it was because Kyle and DeMar are bad in the playoffs.
When we beat the Pacers in 7 games, the Heat in 7 games, then lost to the Cavs in 6, it was because LeBron and company were too good.
When we beat the Bucks in 6, then lost to the Cavs in 4, again, it was because LeBron and company were too good.
Along the ride of the past years’ playoffs, the narrative of Kyle and DeMar being duds in the playoffs followed us along the way.
At first, the narrative stings and perhaps plagues your performance. Then you conquer it, realize that the narrative will resurface at any moment of weakness, then finally learn to block it out.
The Raptors can’t play the lack-of-experience card anymore. They’ve been in so many big situations, so many high-pressure games and have emerged victorious many a time, but have fallen short even more.
Importantly, the core of this team (Kyle/DeMar/JV/Casey) has been through this all together. The pieces who’ve come along to form this first seed team (OG/Serge/Fred/Delon/CJ/Pascal/Jakob) have either been there before (Serge, CJ), or are only playing in their first or second playoffs.
The young guys have the necessary role models to follow. When you drop a big game 4 and have to come back home tied 2-2 you have your vets to follow. The guys who have been there and done that, suffering through the bad and staying level-headed during the good.
Although this was a bumpy series at times, it served as yet another learning experience for this battle-tested team.
We’re starting to get that look of a team that won’t be rattled, and I like it. It won’t be all sunshine and roses in the playoffs; no matter how good you are there will always be tough games.
But I feel like this team has been through hell and back, and with each battle, they get a little bit better.
It’s been a wild first round for a lot of reasons, and thankfully we have a few days off to recoup.
I can’t wait to see how we come out of the gates in round 2.