Shout out to Boss Davis. All the shout outs to Boss Davis.
The former Toronto Raptors lottery pick was a key piece of the Portland Trail Blazers’ second-half comeback against the Boston Celtics on Thursday, a comeback that resulted in a Blazers victory. That Blazers victory, and the Celtics loss it created, helped clinch another Atlantic Division crown for the Raptors.
With the loss, the Celtics are now 43-32, 7.5 games behind the Raptors in the division. That’s too many to catch up with the Celtics having just seven left to play, the Raptors eight, and the Raptors owning the tiebreaker based on season series. (The Raptors are also exceptionally close to clinching the No. 2 seed over the Atlanta Hawks, something the Raptors could lock up this weekend.)
The division title is the fourth in Raptors’ history and the third in a row, providing additional material alongside Bon Jovi in the Air Canada Centre rafters. Shout out to Bon Jovi.
A day after reaching 50 wins for the first time, there’s little extra to say here. This is the best regular season Raptors team ever and the best “era” in the teams 21-year history, with three consecutive team-record win totals and division crowns. Sure, the Atlantic has been largely awful, but someone has to hang those banners, and the Celtics are a worthy adversary this season. The Raptors are really damn good, and even if the season will only be evaluated post-facto by playoff success, we should all be pleased as piss to be enjoying the regular season ride.
