Before #ComeTogether there was #WeTheNorth. Before the Toronto Blue Jays ended the longest current playoff drought in North American professional sports by winning the American League East title, the Toronto Raptors won a city’s heart and staked a claim to something approximating a national footprint.
Before Josh Donaldson showed up and pronounced that not only was the Rogers Centre a boon to him offensively, the artificial turf – which didn’t bother his legs or his feet or his back – actually helped him defensively, there was Kyle Lowry re-signing and telling everybody that Toronto was a pretty cool place to set down roots. And being voted in to the all-star game.
I thought about this Wednesday night when the Raptors opened their season with a 106-99 win over the Indiana Pacers, and when three of the youngest, most ebullient Blue Jays – Marcus Stroman, Aaron Sanchez and Ryan Goins – were introduced to the crowd during a timeout. It’s to be hoped that the three of them are taking notes, because next season, this will be them. Next season, there will be expectations. The keys to the city fit right now, but it’s funny how somebody can come along and change the locks in the off-season. Expectations will do that to a fan base. Expectations will do that to you.
The Raptors have so much on their plate this season. Their riveting playoff battle against the Brooklyn Nets in 2013-2014 gave way to 2014-2015’s shocking white flag against the Washington Wizards. For some of us, it was a sign that the Raptors and their fan base had in some ways grown up — that they had learned that just getting to the playoffs and winning are two entirely different things.
This season will be about maturity. As head coach Dwane Casey said on the The Jeff Blair Show Wednesday, “we could be a better team than we were last season but have a worse record, if that makes sense.” And it does. Totally. This is about building on the Raptors’ defensive DNA (it’s in there some place, still around from the ‘Pound The Rock,’ days) and positioning the team to advance through the playoffs. Giddiness has been replaced by cold, hard, tactical reality.
The Blue Jays excited us, until running into the most perfect team in baseball, the Kansas City Royals. They owned Canada this summer. Period. But the Raptors are the most mature team in this city. Two-time playoff participants, they set a club record Wednesday night when Jonas Valanciunas, DeMar DeRozan and Lowry started together for a fourth consecutive opening night. They will be responsible for keeping the torch burning this winter, because the Toronto Maple Leafs would just as soon nobody paid attention to them – Lou Lamoriello is determined to turn them into the NHL’s version of a witness protection program, and it’s working – while Toronto FC doesn’t inspire confidence ahead of Thursday’s playoff game against the Montreal Impact, let alone beyond that match. Plus, the Raptors are hosting the 2016 NBA All-Star Game, which for a weekend will make Toronto the sexiest city on the continent.
Has there been a Toronto team of recent vintage that is so much about this year? I don’t think so. Casey, DeRozan? They’re on the spot.
And so the opener must out of necessity be viewed through a different lens. The most interesting post-game line came from Patrick Patterson, who played so well off the bench that he might soon regain a starting spot.
“As a team, we played horribly in the first half,” said Patterson, who finished with eight points and four rebounds – two of them absolutely crucial – in 19 minutes. Among the Raptors’ transgressions? “We were complaining to the referees too much,” he said, candidly. “That’s something we’ve done a lot of since I’ve been here.” Meanwhile, Valanciunas actually finished out a game by playing to the end with the result in the balance. OK, so the fact that Bismack Biyombo fouled out had something to do with that. But even Casey noted Valanciunas’s contribution, taking a poke at critics from last season who railed against his reluctance to let the big Lithuanian finish out the game.
“That’s what we’ve been waiting for,” Casey said. “Everyone wanted to see him (Valanciunas) play at the end; that’s what he’s got to do.”
The biggest concern, from my point of view, is the second unit. I don’t trust Terrence Ross at the best of times and the fact of the matter is he is now in the position where he will often be introduced to the game at the worst of times. As Casey said on Wednesday, Ross’s job will be to come into the game and “change the lead” or “maintain the lead.” He will be counted upon to contribute from three-point range and the problem is that he won’t be able to feel his way into the game as he might a starter.
Casey has other options first off the bench, like Patterson and Cory Joseph, but the latter would necessitate going small and I have to think that in Casey’s perfect world Patterson is actually starting and Luis Scola is on the bench. Biyombo is a defensive possibility. There is no Lou Williams in this group.
Wednesday’s game was not an auspicious one for Ross in his new role. It took three minutes for him to pick up three fouls; he missed the only three-point shot he took as Casey’s second unit couldn’t stop the hemoraging in the first quarter. Ross, who played just eight minutes and 27 seconds, picked up his fourth foul early in the fourth quarter, but also hit a three-pointer to make it 75-68, converting a second pass out of the post from Patterson. The three-pointer is life in today’s NBA — missing it is death. Casey thinks he has a team better built to play small ball — Lord, how that term sends a shiver up the spine of a baseball writer — and that will be a key to answering expectations. So many expectations — the stuff that happens when you are no longer simply happy to be here.