The Toronto Raptors have clinched a playoff spot.
With a 94-86 victory over the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday, the Raptors improved to 44-29 on the season, 10 games up on the ninth-seeded Chicago Bulls. With only nine games remaining for both sides, the Raptors can’t fall out of the postseason in even the most extreme of scenarios, though it’s obviously been unlikely for weeks now. (As a side note, Chicago happened to be in ninth when the Raptors clinched a few days earlier a year ago.)
Just as notable is that the Raptors move to 6.5 games up on Atlanta and Milwaukee for fourth in the East and home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. Each of those teams has just 10 games left, and it would take a fairly epic collapse for the Raptors to wind up where they won’t be hosting a Game 1 on April 15 or 16.
That the Raptors have managed to navigate the absence of Kyle Lowry and so firmly solidify their playoff status is impressive and encouraging. With renewed focus and new-found effectiveness on the defensive end, the identity head coach Dwane Casey has long espoused appears to be coming to life. The addition of Lowry should help pick up an offense that has mostly been DeMar DeRozan playing the hero around some occasional chipping in from depth pieces. The Raptors are a top-10 outfit on both ends of the floor over the course of the entire season, a fairly major accomplishment given the injuries they’ve dealt with (DeRozan, Lowry, and Patrick Patterson), as well as a malaise that lasted seven weeks in the middle of the season and threatened to derail some of the progress the team has made.
That downturn has left the Raptors in a position where they may be measured by the second round of the playoffs instead of the third. The Raptors are one game back of the Wizards for third in the East, but Boston is just a half-game back of the Cavaliers for first, so Toronto doesn’t have a great deal of certainty about their second-round opponent. Not that performing up to their low-to-mid-50s win expectation (some shot higher, I had them down for 51, and they’re tracking for about 49 or 50) doesn’t really change the play of Cleveland or Boston, but the top seed in the East and a greater semblance of control was there for the taking. (The Raptors have also said it’s unlikely they’ll rest players down the stretch, though it’s probably less necessary than last year since their stars have missed time hurt. They also may have opted not to if they were a few games better, given how tight the top of the East is. This is probably an unnecessary hypothetical.)
Of course, the Raptors were going to measure themselves by how they perform against the Cavaliers regardless of when it occurred, because so long as LeBron James exists, that’s the relevant measuring stick in the East. A more competitive series with Cleveland would show progress and instil faith in this core, and while some will surely be disappointed if an ouster at the hands of The King happens a round earlier, it won’t really change what the series says about this Raptors team.
Wherever they wind up finishing in the playoffs, simply making it again this season is a nod to how far the franchise has come in terms of long-term success and stability. This is the first time in franchise history the Raptors have made the postseason four years in a row, and while that’s an exceptionally low bar to clear, it represents progress. The goal has been to build the organization’s equity to the point that they can be mentioned earnestly alongside teams like the San Antonio Spurs. The success of the Raptors 905 program, the installation of the BioSteel Centre, hosting events like All-Star Weekend and the D-League Showcase, making splashes on the trade market, retaining stars, these are all marks of strength and stability, pillars of long-term health that have long evaded basketball in this city.
Over the Raptors’ first 18 years of existence, they made just five playoff appearances. Vince Carter’s prime was too brief, Chris Bosh’s reign lacking in support, Ben Uzoh always short a true supporting cast. The postseason droughts have lasted five years, and occasional playoff berths have been fun but with the sense of formality of inevitability in terms of an outcome. It was only last year the team even won a seven-game series, and as silly a marker as that was to hold on to given the change in playoff format, it remained remarkable for a franchise that had existed for two decades. That sense of reaching to relevancy has dissipated, the feelings of inferiority have weakened, and the spectre of the other shoe eventually dropping has slowly lifted.
Last year marked the best season in team history, and despite some obstacles and some shaky stretches, the Raptors have continued looking every bit as sustainable as the long-term plan promised. There are greater heights in their sights and some important questions to ask this offseason depending on how April and May turn out, but the team has come a long, long way from a simple playoff berth being cause for success.
That this post is mostly assumed, obvious, and – really – meaningless, says a great deal. This is the new normal. The expectation is perpetual success in its most basic measurable form as the foundation for much larger, more substantial success at some point in the future. It’s been a long road from celebrating an unlikely playoff berth.
