The Toronto Raptors are looking to make franchise history against Milwaukee at Air Canada Centre on Monday night.
A victory over the lowly Bucks on Monday would give the Raptors 48 wins on the season – a new franchise record for wins in a single season. The W would also put Toronto 15 games over .500 for the first time in the team’s 19-season history.
Grabbing this win shouldn’t prove to be very difficult for the Raptors, even if this is the second game of a back-to-back. Milwaukee has been the worst team in the NBA this season and is one of just two teams with an offensive and defensive rating both in the bottom five.
More than just a win, however, in a game where franchise history is expected to be made, Toronto should look to make a statement.
Despite having won five of their last six, the Raptors haven’t been playing the kind of basketball you’ve come to expect from the club, surrendering over 100 points in their last three games to teams with offences that shouldn’t have been able to reach that point total, given Toronto’s ninth-ranked defence.
As has been the case for most of the season, the Raptors have a tendency to play up and down to the level of their competition, with Sunday’s game being a perfect example as Toronto blew an 18-point lead against the Pistons.
This could be a positive for the Raptors in the playoffs because every team they play will be pretty good, but the inconsistency is still worrisome as they can’t be expected to take possessions off and storm back the way they have done so all through the final stretch of the season.
Therefore, it would be encouraging to see the Raptors go out and blow the doors off the Bucks through the kind of suffocating defence that had become their trademark until just recently.
Thank you New York
Officially out of the playoffs now, the New York Knicks must be having fun playing spoiler.
Last Friday New York beat the Raptors, dropping Toronto out of the coveted third seed in the Eastern Conference, but on Sunday, the Raptors were able to get it back because of their win over Detroit and the Chicago Bulls’ surprising loss to the Knicks.
With just two games remaining now for both Toronto and Chicago, the Raptors’ magic number to clinch the third seed is down to just two – meaning if Toronto wins on Monday and the Bulls lose to the Orlando Magic then that third seed will be theirs.
Other playoff shuffling in the Eastern Conference over the weekend saw the Washington Wizards re-establish their one-game lead over the Charlotte Bobcats for sixth in the East – the seed Toronto would play if they hold onto No. 3 in the conference.