On the eve of the Toronto Raptors’ attempt to redeem themselves from an embarrassing first-round sweep at the hands of the Washington Wizards last year, Kyle Lowry didn’t mince words when it came to how the all-star point guard believed he and his team were playing coming into the 2015 post-season.
"We was trash."
Speaking to reporters on Friday after a playoff practice, Lowry was candid in the way he felt the Raptors were as a unit almost a full year ago.
"You’ve got to be real with yourself sometimes" Lowry said. "Y’all were watching. We knew we was trash. We did go in with a positive attitude and we knew that, ‘Hey, we‘ve got to win the game, we got a chance to win the series,’ but we just weren’t firing, as a team, on all cylinders."
The Raptors’ failure last post-season is still fresh in just about everyone’s mind, but entering their series against the Indiana Pacers, the idea that they had learned from their past mistakes and would come out more ready than ever before was a common theme.
"I think last year we had this and that, and ups and downs, and injuries and things weren’t going the right way," Lowry said of what’s changed between this year and last. "I think this year, finishing the way we finished, it gives us a positive high. Everyone’s still feeling good, we’re vibing, everyone’s all on the same page, and everyone is happy to be in this situation and ready to be successful in this situation."
"Sometimes you’ve got to fail to understand what you have to do," Lowry’s all-star backcourt mate DeMar DeRozan said. "No matter how hard it is, you know you don’t want to feel that same feeling that you had last year, so we have to do everything. Some things we may not like, or some things may be out of the norm, but I think it made us more disciplined at the end of the day."
"I think we’re in a better mental place; confidence levels are higher," said Raptors coach Dwane Casey. "I think guys have accepted their roles much more. They’re much more secure with who they are. That’s a huge difference. … I don’t know if we were trash, but I don’t know if we were as solid of a team or as together chemistry-wise as we were this year in regards to last year."
While the Raptors can talk about what’s different from a psyche standpoint all they want, the biggest difference between this year and last is likely a healthy Lowry, who, despite his claims at the end of last season, was definitely not at 100 per cent.
"He’s a different player just because he’s healthy," Casey said of Lowry. "Last year his back, his calf, whatever it was he had a lot of stuff going on that kept him from being that player that he was before the all-star break."
Lowry torched the Pacers this season for 23.7 points per game on 40 per cent shooting from deep in three games played against them.
Of course, saying the right things and actually getting the job done are two completely different things, but the Raptors appear to be motivated and seem to look at their series with the Pacers as just another trial to overcome after what has been a season that has seen this group reach heights no other Raptors team has before.
"At the end of the day it’s another challenge for us to do something that hasn’t been done," DeRozan said. "We won 50-plus games for the first time. That’s something that can go down, and now we’ve got another opportunity to do something else that hasn’t been done and that’s what it’s all about."
PLAN IN PLACE TO USE CARROLL
Having DeMarre Carroll back in the lineup for the playoffs is a welcomed sight for the Raptors, but there’s no guarantee that he’s actually 100 per cent or that he’ll start on Saturday.
When asked about how he was planning to use Carroll, Casey wouldn’t divulge anything, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens.
With that said, however, Carroll seemed confident he was feeling fine and could be used in any capacity.
"I’m good, great. Basically, if you see me in a fight with a bear, you better help that bear."
RAPTORS NOT WORRIED ABOUT 12:30 START
A lot has been made about Casey’s rant against the 12:30 p.m. ET start time and the supposed lack of respect his team gets, but in the end, both he and the Raptors will be ready for it.
"At 12:30 we’ve got to be ready to go because we’re going to be getting a hard-charging team that’s going to be grabbing, holding, hitting, slashing, ripping," Casey said. "So if we’re not ready for that at 12:30, we might as well just stay home."
