Quick Reaction | Reaction Podcast | 3-Minute Analysis
After the Raptors fell behind 0-2 against the Milwaukee Bucks in 2019, they had various chances to win the third game and pull back into the series. Pascal Siakam missed a buzzer beater in regulation, Kawhi Leonard another in the first overtime period. It took a physics-bending Siakam block and a willful Leonard layup to finish the Bucks with under a minute remaining in double overtime. Toronto eventually topped the Bucks, but it tookr a long, gasping stretch of several minutes of game time.
In 2020, it took OG Anunoby 0.5 seconds to dig Toronto out of its 0-2 hole.
After a horrible miscue on Toronto’s final defensive possession, the Raptors saw a tie game evaporate into a two-point deficit after a Daniel Theis dunk with 0.5 seconds remaining. The game seemed lost, and thus the series, as no NBA team has ever climbed out of a 0-3 series to win. It seemed to be a broken-hearted, eulogies-written, type of end to what was a pristine season. And that would have been okay. For everyone but the Raptors themselves, that is.
“You know what? It seemed like we sat down in our chairs, and they were ready to get the play,” explained Nick Nurse of Toronto’s demeanor before the final play. “They sat down and when I turned around they were all sitting there waiting for me to give them a play.”
Toronto was business-like; they scored, now it’s our turn to score, 0.5 seconds be damned. Toronto saw hope in its 0.5 seconds, saw redemption. Kyle Lowry stepped to the court to inbound, but Tacko Fall, with a 10-foot-3 standing reach, blotted out the sun in front of him. Lowry backed up to the edge of the hardwood, far off the inbounds line — an impossibility in a real NBA arena, with the crowd so close to the floor — and threw his pass perhaps 20 feet high to get it over Fall, 50 feet across the width of the court. Of course he hit Anunoby in the shooting pocket.
And Anunoby did the rest.
The Raptors won 104-103. Anunoby’s game-winner was perhaps the first definitive play of the game that went Toronto’s way. Sure, the Raptors led for small portions of the game, but the prettiest, most impactful moments all seemed to belong to Boston. Kemba Walker hit a buzzer-beating triple to end the first quarter, then another to end the second. Every game, by the way, has seen at least one buzzer-beater to end a quarter.
That wasn’t all, though. Tatum scored fluidly, easily in some moments, in demoralizing fashion. His array of jumpers, fakes, euro-steps, floaters, layups are without a doubt the most dangerous combination of offensive moves in a single player in the series. Robert Williams punched a thunderous and-one dunk while drawing a flagrant foul. Even Brad Wanamaker landed a flying knee to Lowry’s groin to end the third quarter, and the play somehow resulted in a Wanamaker and-one.
Lowry claimed after the game that the play proved he has balls of steel. It wasn’t the only play to prove the truth of that fact.
Toronto’s defense was, as always, a puzzle worthy of the most devilish Zelda game. Nick Nurse used a variety of zones to tease the brains of his opponents. Lowry was a whirling dervish, finishing in the lane over, around, through all comers, using his body to create space no matter the size of his opponent. He finished with 31 points while shooting 9-of-13 at the rim. Lowry’s desperate, constant punching kept Toronto alive until the Anunoby shot, playing all but one and a half minutes of the game, the second-highest total of his playoff career. Fred VanVleet finally caught fire from behind the arc, hitting five triples.
But while the Raptors scrapped and clawed, gutted and panted, the Boston Celtics seemed to soar. Boston’s final four baskets of the game were uncontested dunks from Brown or Theis. All game long, every Raptors lead was erased within moments. Walker hit an outrageous array of pull-up jumpers, scoring 29 points on a mere 15 shots. Boston led by four, and had the ball, with 90 seconds remaining in the game. In any other game, 99 times out of a hundred, it would have been enough.
Not against Lowry, Anunoby, and company.
After Anunoby hit his game-winner, not even needing four bounces, he was stoic. Serious. He walked towards Toronto’s bench, face like glass water.
“I don’t shoot trying to miss,” he said after the game, “so I was not surprised.”
But the Raptors wouldn’t let him live the moment down, wouldn’t let him be cool. They mobbed him, hugged him, smiled for him. Lowry’s smile was bright enough to power all the lights of the CN Tower.
The series has been entirely Boston’s, game three Boston’s but for a miracle. It hasn’t been anything tactical that Toronto’s missed. Sure, they’ve shot poorly in all three games. But the Raptors have been missing joy even more than they’ve been missing jumpers. They’ve lacked smiles, some primal element of pleasure in the game. Nurse has admitted as such. Anunoby tried to play it cool after his buzzer beater, but the Raptors had none of it. They forced joy to the top, bubbling like Mentos in a coke bottle. The series is now 2-1. More importantly, the Raptors are happy again. More than VanVleet’s resurgent stroke, or Lowry’s iron will to dominate, or Toronto’s precedent of coming back last year down 0-2 to Milwaukee, more than anything else, Toronto’s newfound joy in in the bubble is reason for hope.
