Hard things are hard.
This is something I’ve kept coming back to in the playoffs whenever I get frustrated. The Toronto Raptors haven’t consistently taken care of business, they’ve made things more difficult on themselves than perhaps was necessary, and their playoff run as a whole, while successful to this point, has created a daily battle with stress, anxiety, and the tug of war between the requisite optimism of fandom and the inevitable pessimism of rooting for this franchise for 21 years.
Never was that the case more than on Friday night, when for the second series in a row, the Raptors were unable to close out a series on the road, up 3-2. Instead of asserting their status as the (marginally) better team, the Raptors turned in a bit of a dud in Game 6, allowing the Miami Heat to draw even in the series and force a deciding Game 7 on Sunday (3:30).
That the Raptors saved their worst defensive effort for the most important game falls somewhere between curious and infuriating, and the primary culprits were not the players from whom you suspect such a night. Cory Joseph, for example, has been the Raptors’ most steady and even-keeled player throughout the playoffs, leaning on his experience as a role player in several San Antonio Spurs playoff runs. He had his worst two-way night of the series, working in tandem with Kyle Lowry to escort Goran Dragic to the rim at his leisure. DeMarre Carroll, the depiction of toughness, tweaked something in his leg to accompany his wrist injury and was kept on the bench late, whether because of that or as a strategic choice. Bismack Biyombo, a monumental factor in Games 4 and 5, was pulled from the rim from the second quarter onward and unable to punish the extra pressure paid to the team’s guards at the other end. Terrence Ross, you may recall, is Terrence Ross.
“Obviously, defensively we weren’t at our best,” Biyombo said. “Nobody said it was going to be easy…Tonight, obviously, defensively, we just weren’t there.”
It was an inopportune time for the supporting cast to fail to step up, too. All season long, the Raptors have been lifted by their depth, a group of selfless, two-way players capable of getting the stops and making the shots required when Lowry and DeMar DeRozan are rendered ineffective or need to be spelled. At times in the postseason, that depth has carried the Raptors far more than their stars, with Dwane Casey calling on any number of players – starters, reserves, and those out of the rotation – and having them answer. While Lowry and DeRozan took weeks to find their playoff footing, and their jump shots, guys like Biyombo, Joseph, Patrick Patterson, Norman Powell, and Jonas Valanciunas all took on bigger roles to keep the team afloat. Lowry, too, worked to do all of the non-shooting things that make him Kyle Lowry, defending well and creating havoc and kick-starting the offense with his dribble penetration and passing. The team continues to show that it can still be good when not at its best, which was the entire goal of the offseason roster overhaul.
On Friday, this power of depth and strength of unity wasn’t present. Everything offensively fell on the shoulders of Lowry and DeRozan, who combined for 59 points for a second game in a row. That’s great, and the back-to-back outpourings may be a positive harbinger. There’s a balance to be struck, though, and it’s possible Lowry and DeRozan tried to do too much, or were forced to when help wasn’t there. By the end of the game, they’d scored 64.8 percent of the team’s points on 58.5 percent of the field-goal attempts, all while combining for just five assists. The ball movement’s never been great in this series, and the stars don’t get credit for shots their teammates don’t knock down – the supporting cast combined to go 1-of-10 on threes, most of them open – but things were once again sticky on Friday. Again, Lowry and DeRozan had to shoot this much, or close to it, because nobody else was proving capable, but it’s not the ideal way to win a game (particularly when it eats a bunch of clock during a comeback attempt).
Head coach Dwane Casey didn’t have the best of nights, either, though he’s certainly playing with an incomplete deck here. The continued search for backup center minutes saw both Jason Thompson and Lucas Nogueira spot in for stretches, the latter providing slightly more but still perhaps not enough to have a role in Game 7. Norman Powell remains persona non grata despite a shakier night from Ross, who’s been good at times in the series but as enigmatic as usual. And James Johnson finally got the call, albeit probably a little late. As Casey continues to search for production when Biyombo sits and for a way to manage offense when Biyombo plays – the Raptors were brutal scoring against smaller groups – he’s going to make some mistakes, if only because the process is far too muddled for him to be judged by much other than the results. That might not be fair given the decision set he has, but it doesn’t mean the missteps aren’t there, and the Raptors don’t have a solution for centerless Heat lineups three games in. Casey has to answer the call in Game 7 like he did in Game 5, and he deserves the chance to do so, given how well he’s made game-to-game adjustments in the series.
The Raptors, by the way, are yet to lose back-to-back games in the playoffs. That might not inspire a ton of confidence, and perhaps it shouldn’t. It, like the silly “Raptors have never won when leading a series” stat that was making the rounds Friday, is simply descriptive and not predictive.
But those bounce-backs speak to a few things, about this team and about the situation in general. Again, we come back to hard things being hard. The Indiana Pacers won 45 games. The Heat won 48. One was the number three defense in the NBA with a top-10 player on the roster. The other has a wealth of championship experience, a great coach, and several crunch-time shot-makers. The fact that the Raptors haven’t ended a series early is no damning indictment on them – they’re playing against comparably good teams, in an environment where no opponents is going to fail to show up. This is the second round of the playoffs, and attributing wins and losses entirely to one team ignores the very real fact that there’s another team that wants to win just as badly in each game.
For every story that can be spun about the Raptors wilting in a close-out situation, or about how they lacked the hunger to get it done, or how they only play well with their backs against the walls, and so on, consider the other side. Opponents are doing after losses exactly what the Raptors are being lauded for after losses: They’re adjusting, they’re coming out hungry, and they’re fighting like hell for their playoff lives. Yes, the Raptors have dropped two Game 6s in a row, but that’s not some abject failure on their part, it’s just really difficult to close out a playoff series against a quality opponent on the road.
“They’ve been in these situations plenty of times, a lot more than any of us have,” Patterson said before the game (per Ryan Wolstat). “We’re still learning, we’re still gradually getting better and hey, we’re still playing,” he added afterward.
The difficulty of the situation doesn’t forgive playing poorly, mind you. They should have and could have done better against the Pacers and handled business in a more efficient manner, they could have won Game 4 against Miami, and they could have played better Friday. But this Heat series was always going to go seven. The Raptors fought all year to ensure home-court in the first two rounds of the playoffs, and this is why. Playoff series aren’t going to be easy, full stop. The Raptors worked tirelessly for 82 games knowing exactly this, and now that their backs are against the wall for what will be the biggest game in franchise history, they have the advantage.
“We played all year to become the two-seed in the East and get home court,” Lowry said. ” This is going to be fun. It’s Game 7, two versus three, and a good opportunity to play on one of the biggest stages there is.
“Just go out there and hoop.”
I predicted at the outset it would be Raptors in seven, and I predicted last night they’d drop Game 6, because again, closing out a very good, experienced team on their own court is really tough. And after the loss, the Raptors are exactly where they need to be, even if they’re disappointed to be there.
“We came here to try to win the game,” Casey said. “We weren’t coming here wanting a Game 7.”
That may be so, and the Raptors definitely squandered Game 6 to a degree. They lacked aggression, in the eyes of Carroll. They were unable to get around smaller Heat players fighting for rebounds, in Casey’s words. They didn’t play their defensive game, as Biyombo admitted. All of these things are true, and worry is justified given the stakes and the complete lack of room for error on Sunday. At the same time, Lowry and DeRozan seem to have found themselves, the Raptors have rarely struggled more than a game at a time, the coaching staff has done well to adjust between games (and there are necessary adjustments, to be clear), and the Raptors have home court.
It’s different than Game 7 against Indiana, too, because the Raptors aren’t facing some sort of history or narrative or ghosts of the past. They’re here, they’ve already proven what they need to prove. Sunday isn’t about what the franchise hasn’t done, it’s about what they could do. And what they could do, and should be expected to do, is advance to the Eastern Conference Finals. The Raptors can play a little better, they can dig a little deeper, and they can beat the Heat.
It’s not going to be easy, and it’s damn sure not going to be stress-free for fans, because hard things are hard. If they weren’t, we all wouldn’t be as nervous and anxious and excited, and the pay-off wouldn’t be nearly as rewarding, if it comes. Tomorrow is the kind of day players and fans alike live for.
“What better place do you want to be?” Carroll asked.
