A year ago at this time, the Raptors had already made the decision to reduce their losses and look to the future. The pandemic had forced them to play their home games far away from home, a slow start set the tone and then a COVID outbreak throughout the team shattered any hope of saving a lost campaign. So instead of trying to squeeze in the play-offs, they chose to take a strategic step back and play for lottery balls instead of wins. It is not easy to call for a league-level tournament that prides itself on the culture of its victories, which had qualified for the playoffs in seven consecutive seasons before last year. However, as Masai Ujiri explained, following what he would later call a “Tampa tank”, if all went according to plan, he would not be down for long. “Everyone says, ‘Why don’t you get in play-in?’ Play for what? We want to win [another] championship here “, said the president of the Raptors famously, after the end of the disappointing 2020-21 season of his team last May. “We have to put ourselves in a position [to do that]. » They have spent the last 12 months taking steps in this direction. Their time as a draft lottery team was short but very successful. With the fourth selection, they added Scottie Barnes, a superstar in the works, to a young core that he used this season to return to orbit, individually and collectively. Fred VanVleet flourished as an all-star and Pascal Siakam not only rediscovered his pre-pandemic form, but he has overcome it. Once again, they avoided play-in, but this time it was out of ambition, not wear and tear. A year later, they return to where they want to be. With Tuesday’s win over Atlanta and the loss to Cleveland from Orlando, the Raptors won the top six in the East and a guaranteed place in the playoffs. “It means a lot,” said Fred VanVleet after the 118-108 victory. “It’s one of those things we just have to appreciate about the trip. The first four or five [years I was here], you are a little tired, a little spoiled, you are just waiting for the victory and excellence you need to be good every night in this championship. This was taken away from us last year, so we are sitting at home [May] and watching the first round of the playoffs, or even the play-in, when we all felt we were good enough to be there, it stung us a little bit and I know this is something we talked about. “ “Quickly in front of having a group that no one thought would be good, being here in this position is good. We did what we wanted to do in the regular season, which was to have a good regular season [and] give us a place where we feel we belong and now is the time to go and see what we can do “. One of the youngest and most inexperienced teams in the league, these Raptors entered the season with mediocre expectations. The Vegas had their total wins at 36.5. They were shown as a group of 0,500, at best. Most thought that if all went well, if they had any good luck with injuries and the youngsters were growing fast, they would be in the mix for the play-in tournament. Instead, they achieved the over in this set of victories at the beginning of last month. They are 46-33 and with three games left, they will have a chance to surpass all their victories from that 2013-14 season – the year that marked the start of the most successful run in franchise history. Who would have thought that this was possible in October? “Every year I’m here, we’ve always been driven lower than we thought we could be and it just made us work harder,” said Chris Boucher. “I feel like we all knew what we were capable of doing… When I saw the talent we had, it was just to put all the pieces together.” Ujiri, Bobby Webster and this Toronto front desk turned their heads and raised some eyebrows, picking Barnes from the supposed top four Jalen Suggs and building this unorthodox roster consisting mostly of large, interchangeable forwards. It took us a while to figure it out and build an identity, but this group has come a long way since Washington ousted them from its own court on the opening night. “They have grown a lot and tonight was a really good example,” said head coach Nick Nurs after Tuesday’s victory. “In the first 25 games of the year we could not alternate our defense plans. We just could not do it. Every time we changed the belt it was wide open, every time we changed in blitzing, we did not do the spins, every time we tried to do what we were trying to do, we just did not do it at all, it concerned. But tonight we got away from the man, we went back to a bunch of different screen and roll covers, we went back to the box-and-one, and so they have grown so much in this area. ” The Raptors showed their maturity against a hot, highly motivated Hawks team that had won five consecutive games and was vying for a place in the East play-in. Toronto seemed to leave early in the fourth quarter before being left without a score for more than five minutes. With Tray Young ahead, Atlanta turned the 12-point deficit into a blink of an eye. However, the Raptors beat them 15-5 in the last two minutes. Barnes grabbed an offensive rebound and hit a baby hook around the rim. VanVleet, who lost 10 of his first 11 three-pointer attempts, knocked down a three-pointer clutch. Shiakam drained two free throws to bow to another great performance. This is not a game they would have withdrawn a few months ago, but they found a way. And this is the identity they have built. They do not give up. They do not back down, regardless of the opponent or the situation. Things did not go perfectly for them this season. Injuries had to be overcome – first to Siakam, who started the campaign late after an off-season shoulder injury, then to VanVleet, who was battling a debilitating knee disease, and now to OG Anunoby, who is out with bruises on thigh. COVID struck again in December, forcing three of their games to be postponed and decimating their roster in a loss to Cleveland. It is the only team in the league that had to play on an empty field this season, due to participation restrictions in the province. They just could not stand it. They have prospered. On February 26, the Raptors, who finished seventh, were six games behind the Bulls, who finished first. Since then, Toronto has won 14 of the 20 tournaments, while Chicago has lost 13 of the 19, and on Tuesday, the Raptors finished fifth in the conference. They did it the same way they managed to steal this last win over Atlanta, using effort and hard play to make up for the lack of shooting and half-time offense. On Tuesday, they lost their first 12 attempts for three-pointers and shot 9-to-35 over the arc, but scored 24 second chance points in 20 offensive rebounds. Most of the time, this was the formula for their victories. This game, against this very tough Atlanta team, was a good indication of why they had worked so hard to avoid play-in. The Hawks went to the finals of the conference a year ago and have one of the deadliest scorers in the NBA, the Hornets are dangerous, and then there are the Nets under Kevin Durand and Carey Irving, who no one wants to face in a win -or-home transition scenario. Now that the Raptors have booked their ticket for the post-season, they can use these last three games to rest some of their hit stars. An added bonus is that they will have six days between Sunday’s regular season final in New York and Game 1 of the first round, which is scheduled to start on April 16. This is one of the reasons why VanVleet chose to play from a knee injury. Now he, Anunoby and others will have the opportunity to heal and come to full force before the playoffs. The next five days will determine whether they finish fifth or sixth and who they will face in the opening round – after Tuesday night’s games, Boston, Milwaukee and Philadelphia found themselves in a three-way tie behind first-placed Miami. They will be heavy underdogs in a row against any of these opponents, but that is unlikely to bother a team that defies odds and proves that people are wrong all season. “I think they have formed some kind of identity,” Ners said. “It’s a bit quirky and a little different, but it’s a tough, competitive identity and they found a way to win enough wins to get them in that situation. “I do not think they were chosen to get here, so that is always a good achievement.”
