The walk up to the Air Canada Centre today was interesting. It’s the fourth year in a row the Toronto Raptors have made the playoffs and the third time in that stretch I’ve been making a similar pre-game walk to attend Game 1. (It will never not be striking and a cause to be grateful on a day as big as this that this is considered a commute for me.) Last year’s walk was cause for a lot of thinking because of just how much that series against the Indiana Pacers meant. The walk up for Game 7, Game 7 against the Miami Heat, and Game 4 against the Cleveland Cavaliers are all walks I’ll remember (shout out to Mandy Moore).
Today’s, for whatever reason, felt a little more rote despite the palpable buzz around the city. I was frozen by cold, hard rain for the first half of the 40-minute trek, and spent the second half sweating instead of drying up. I saw Leafs jerseys, Jays jerseys, and Raptors jerseys. I walked past Jurassic Park before the crowds filtered in, and lapped the ACC to check out the visuals. It’s exciting, of course, to be in the playoffs again ahead of what could be a very good, very meaningful playoff run, but the Raptors have grown to the point where the opening of the playoffs, while awesome, is the expectation, and it’s kind of old hat. In talking to others on the walk and around the ACC, that seemed to be the majority feeling, not that it makes today even one iota less incredible.
“The pressure is the same. The expectations are different,” head coach Dwane Casey said before the game. “That’s what comes with the territory when you build something and get better each year.”
The Raptors can’t afford to feel this way. All week, they’ve talked up their experience, not in terms of the edge it provides them against a young Milwaukee Bucks but in terms of how they’ll be prepared for anything – any series scenario, being a favorite or an underdog, any defensive coverage. On the short list of things this group is yet to accomplish, getting off to a good start is at the top, and they’ll need to approach Saturday with the hunger and desperation that has defined their successes. They seem acutely aware of this, and if they forget it for a second, a plucky, high-energy Bucks team is going to be there to remind them with a swift punch in the mouth. (Theoretically, unless maybe Spencer Hawes finds himself in the rotation.)
The game tips off at 5:30 on ESPN (Ryan Ruocco, Doris Burke, and Cassidy Hubbarth) and Sportsnet One on TV and on TSN 1050 on radio. You can check out the full game preview here. Your officials are Ken Mauer, John Gable, and Ed Malloy.
Required reading
Here’s what you need ahead of Game 1, assuming you haven’t been keeping up.
- I’d put it all here again, but there’s an entire preview hub right here. Just check that out.
Raptors updates
To answer the question that didn’t need answering: No, an illness will not keep P.J. Tucker out of his first career NBA playoff game. He’s a go, and that’s awesome, because Tucker at extra intensity should be something to behold. He treats every possession like a Game 7, anyway, and his teammates have the utmost faith he’s going to respond well to the postseason atmosphere.
“It’ll be easy. Especially for him,” DeMar DeRozan said of Tucker earlier in the week. “He fits what Saturday night is going to be like. The whole atmosphere, the intensity, the aggression, the passion. That’s PJ. He’s definitely going to fit in with that perfectly.”
Outside of Tucker’s status, everything else was known going in, though how head coach Dwane Casey will approach his rotation – eight men? ten? Delon Wright or Norman Powell? use Jonas Valanciunas opposite Greg Monroe early in the second and fourth? – is likely to be something of an ongoing question as the teams figure each other out. That aspect is one of my favorite chess matches of the playoffs.
PG: Kyle Lowry, Cory Joseph, Delon Wright, Fred VanVleet
SG: DeMar DeRozan, Norman Powell
SF: DeMarre Carrol, P.J. Tucker
PF: Serge Ibaka, Patrick Patterson
C: Jonas Valanciunas, Jakob Poeltl, Lucas Nogueira
TBD: None
ASSIGNED: Bruno Caboclo, Pascal Siakam
OUT: None
Bucks updates
The Bucks come in healthy, too, save for the long-term absence of Jabari Parker. Gary Payton II or Rashad Vaughn figure to join him as the second inactive, as Milwaukee will probably want to keep four centers available even if they’re actually best off using none of them. How Jason Kidd handles his rotation at the five is probably the biggest question he faces – Thon Maker is a nice long-term piece but could get bullied here, Spencer Hawes can shoot but isn’t particularly good otherwise, Monroe is a personal favorite but is set in his bench role, and John Henson doesn’t have the weaknesses of the others to as pronounced a degree but also doesn’t have the clear strengths they bring – and the Raptors have to be hoping he puts off using Giannis Antetokounmpo at the five as long as he can.
PG: Malcolm Brogdon, Matthew Dellavedova, Gary Payton II
SG: Tony Snell, Jason Terry, Rashad Vaughn
SF: Khris Middleton, Michael Beasley
PF: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Mirza Teletovic
C: Thon Maker, Greg Monroe, John Henson, Spencer Hawes
TBD: None
ASSIGNED: None
OUT: Jabari Parker
Pre-game news and notes
- Casey was asked about trying to marry the team’s offensive success with their defensive success, successes that haven’t happened together at any point this year. “It’s the NBA. Things change,” he offered, pointing to the difficulty of maintaining a high level on both sides over long periods. That’s obviously what they’re looking to achieve here.
- Asked about the Bucks’ defensive pressure, Casey pointed to DeRozan’s growth as a playmaker as a necessity. “That’s one of the most important things is the willingness and understanding of where the outlets are,” Casey said, noting that the Raptors averaged more than a point per-possession against what they categorized as over 20 Bucks blitzes last time out.
- Jason Kidd on starting two rookies in a playoff series: “I think we’re starting two rookies in which we felt during the season they’ve gotten better. Thon has made a jump here in the month of March and April and Malcolm has done the same thing for us all season.”
- On the problems Valanciunas has caused the Bucks in the past: “I think he’s a very talented center…For our guys, we have our hands full.”
- On the differences between the Raptors now and the Raptors he coaches against three years ago, Kidd was very complementary of the team’s growth, particularly with respect to Lowry and DeRozan. “This is going to be a really good test for us.”
- It’s Game 1…there really wasn’t much juicy said.
Assorted
- It’s a plaid-out, complete with shirts with a hand holding a net. I’m a fan, but the reception on Twitter so far seems to be mixed.
It’s a plaid out for Game 1! pic.twitter.com/oPVwisSX4X
— Blake Murphy (@BlakeMurphyODC) April 15, 2017
- Semi-related, the Raptors have some pretty cool gear on the way throughout the playoffs. The Buffalo plaid theme maybe isn’t for everyone, but the shirts, hats, and accents on the way are OK by me. The Raptors’ red, black, and white color scheme fits well with it, and if they’re not going to go Huskies/OVO/throwback at any point, going with a style that reflects their primary colors (and therefore has a long shelf life for fans wearing them) is smart.
The line
Game 1: Raptors -7.5
Series: Raptors -350 (implied probability of 77.8 percent)
The Raptors opened as 6.5-point favorites and the line has edged to Raptors -7.5. That suggests the Raptors are a three-to-four point favorite on neutral ground and could be a slight favorite or a pick-em when the series moves to Milwaukee, assuming no significant changes over Games 1 and 2. What’s interesting with the line being bid up in favor of the Raptors is that the series price has gone the other way, from -400 to -350 since Friday, suggesting there’s been some action on the underdog. The over-under, meanwhile, quickly dropped from 203.5 to 197.5, which is pretty significant given how sharp Vegas lines usually are in the playoffs.
