Following three straight losses—one you can live with (against the Houston Rockets) and two should-have-wons (New Orleans and Dallas)—the Toronto Raptors and their fans are desperate to turn the tide.
And even with the NBA’s best team coming to town tonight, the wait may not be as long as you think.
The Golden State Warriors are as formidable a foe as exists in the NBA. Even on an off-night for the Dubs it took 42 points from LeBron James to sink them in Cleveland on Thursday.
From day one this season, the Warriors have set a benchmark the rest of the league has scrambled to reach. Led by Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, their offence is the most potent in the league, averaging 110 points per game. Just as impressive, they hold opponents to 42.6 percent shooting, the lowest mark in the league, and their point differential on the season is +10.3—four points above any other team.
In summation: These Warriors are really good at basketball.
The Raptors, of course, know this all too well. In their only other meeting this season, Toronto was thoroughly whupped—126-105—by the Warriors in Oakland on Jan. 2.
That game featured a nasty combination: some of the best from the Dubs (a combined 52 points for Curry and Thompson on 53 percent from beyond the arc) and some of the worst from the Raptors (15 turnovers, general suckiness).
It also featured this:
It was a total evisceration, and—by my count—just the fifth blowout the Raps have suffered this season.
So why does that bode well for Toronto’s chances tonight?
For every one of this season’s previous blowout losses, Dwane Casey’s team has responded well in the ‘revenge’ game.
Earlier this season Toronto was embarrassed by the Chicago Bulls at home in what was, to that point, their biggest game of the season. When they visited the Bulls in late-December, they came out determined to make amends, and for the most part they did before ultimately collapsing in historic fashion in the fourth quarter.
When the Cleveland Cavaliers beat Toronto 105-91 on Dec. 5, the Raptors went back at them four nights later, losing a hard-fought contest 105-101.
And a little over a month ago the Atlanta Hawks smoked the Raps 110-89 at the ACC. When the Raptors next faced Atlanta—the best team in the conference—they returned the favour with a thoroughly impressive 105-80 win. After the game the Raptors players openly spoke about the revenge-factor helping to fuel the win.
Here’s betting they bring that same attitude tonight. (Though, maybe ‘hoping’ is the better word.)
Given the talent and recent pedigree of the visiting team, and the Raps’ performance over the past six days, expectations heading into Friday night’s game are understandably tempered.
But as those previous revenge games showed, over the grind of an 82-game season it’s not always purely about results—effort counts.
So, facing a team on the second night of a back-to-back and with plenty of pride on the line, this may in fact be a winnable game for the Raps. But tonight that tired old line may just be true: It’s not whether they win or lose, it’s how the play the game.
