TORONTO — There can only be so many good news days for the Toronto Raptors between now and the end of their season, whenever that might be.
It’s just the way things are set up. Their season to this point couldn’t have realistically gone any better. On Wednesday night in front of the 77th straight sellout at Air Canada Centre they earned their franchise-record 50th regular-season win with eight games to play.
“It means a lot,” said DeMar DeRozan, the franchise’s longest serving player, one who played on teams for who 50 wins would have been two season’s work. “This group, I have to tell everybody, is going to go down in the record books. That’s big you can never take that away [and] we have the opportunity to continue to build on it.”
They did it with a 105-97 victory over the Atlanta Hawks, the hottest team in the Eastern Conference in March and the NBA’s best defensive team since the all-star break. They will start the playoffs as the Eastern Conference’s No. 2 seed, another franchise first.
But between now and the official beginning of their post-season quest, the real task is avoid any lurking disasters; to navigate the icebergs.
As well as things have gone so far, the risk now is things going wrong. Injuries, a string of losses, the aggregation of doubt.
It is the Raptors way.
But Wednesday night things started going right well before the ball went up. There was DeMarre Carroll holding court, easing understandable fears that the slow recovery of his surgically repaired right knee would prevent him from returning to the lineup before the end of the regular season on April 13 and thus making him – at the very best – questionable for the playoffs.
“We’ve seen the top doctors in the United States,” said Carroll, who saw a doctor in Chicago on Tuesday and his surgeon in New York Wednesday morning. “They said it’s a go. I think I’m gonna start really ramping it up in the next couple of days. Hopefully I’ll be back.”
Despite the qualifier – “hopefully” leaves a whole lot of wiggle room should his knee flare up again – he always believed he’d find his way back to the floor.
“I never thought [my season could be over],” said Carroll. “One thing about me is I’m going to do anything I can to give myself an opportunity because this game isn’t promised to you and I know that. After going through all the things I’ve been through I don’t take it for granted so if you don’t see me on the court you better rest assured that I’m trying to get on the court.”
He’s played just 23 games this season due to problems with his right knee and plantar fasciitis in his left foot. His foot problems are gone. He had surgery on Jan. 6 in New York City and was predicted to be out for 8-10 weeks. But right around the eight-week mark, as he began transitioning from doing drills with assistant coaches to light scrimmaging in practice, he got some swelling in his knee that concerned him.
He has spent the past few weeks resting and getting additional medical opinions. Told that his knee is sound, he’s ready to go full force in his effort to bring the kind of defence and savvy he knows he can provide to a team during the point in the season they need him most.
“Hell yeah, I am [excited],” Carroll said. “Very excited. It’s great, man. I’m just happy to get back on the court and hopefully I can go out when I get back on the court and give this team extra energy, an extra boost, bring that tenacity that I play with and hopefully that can help some of these guys re-energize leading to the playoffs.”
His teammates can’t wait.
“That’s a big boost, that’s definitely a big boost,” said DeRozan. “I hope everything goes well because once he gets out there on that court he’s going to play extremely hard … We need him. We definitely need him.”
It can only be a good thing, although it’s probably a bit much to expect Carroll will be able to work himself into good enough shape quickly enough to be the minutes eater at the forward spot his four-year, $60-million says he’s supposed to be.
But Carroll sees no issues.
“I can go out there and play defence,” said Carroll. “I don’t even have to make a shot. I can impact the game defensively for this team and don’t have to take a shot. … I understand what it takes and what role I need to play. All I need is a couple games [to be ready.]”
The likelihood is Carroll will target the final week of the regular season which will maximize the amount of practice time he can get with his teammates.
For the moment, his teammates look pretty good. The win improved them to 3-0 over the Hawks this season, their likely second-round playoff opponent should they each advance. DeRozan looked sharp, leading the Raptors with 26 points, five rebound and six assists. Terrence Ross returned after missing three games with a sore thumb and came off the bench for 13 points. Norman Powell continued his run as the most unexpected rookie contributor in franchise history as he finished with 10 points and helped hold Hawks sharpshooter Kyle Korver to three points on 1-of-6 shooting.
It was a fun night, the timing perfect.
All kinds of things can go wrong between now and season’s end two weeks from now.
In Carroll’s case the swelling that gave him so much concern in the first place could return.
There are concerns about Lowry’s shooting elbow – he was 4-of-19 from the floor, although he did count six rebounds and 11 assists – and is now shooting 20-of-80 from the floor since his bursa sac swelled up.
In the Raptors’ case there is a heavy schedule to navigate between now and Game 82. Their next five games are against playoff-bound teams with a cumulative winning percentage of .620.
Even if the Raptors were a full-strength squad and even if Carroll had been back for a month already it would be daunting stretch. Drop a few in a row and it’s the kind of stretch that gets a fanbase thinking back to last season’s late-season stumbles – the prelude to a playoff pratfall.
There may well be trouble ahead and it could rear up as quickly as the next time Carroll tries to push himself on his ginger right knee and it comes up puffy.
But for one night at least everything looked rosy. For one night it was nice to think about how well things are going. Carroll’s optimistic about getting back and his teammates won in impressive fashion without him.
How better to keep the doubts at bay until the playoffs begin?