The door is open for the Toronto Raptors.
Scratch that.
It’s wide open.
In light of the news that Boston Celtics superstar point guard Kyrie Irving will miss the entirety of the post-season, Toronto has seen an obstacle in its path to a potential first-ever Finals berth go down in flames.
The Celtics, as admirable a season as they’ve had — prompting all the romantic discussion that revolves around words like “resilience” and “fortitude” — cannot win without their key offensive savant in the lineup.
Boston, a sub-par offensive team all season, is a particularly putrid offensive club without Irving, averaging just 101.3 points per 100 possessions in lineups that don’t include him – which, obviously, means now and all through the playoffs.
You need not look any further than Wednesday night’s 96-78 drubbing at the hands of the Raptors for evidence of how bad this news is for Boston. Yes, The C’s actually did a good job defensively – they boast the best defensive efficiency in the league, after all – but that ultimately didn’t matter because they were completely stymied by a Raptors side that had been awful on defence in their eight games prior to Wednesday, giving up a league-worst 113.5 points per 100 possessions over that span.
Defence, as important as it’s always traditionally has been, doesn’t impact winning as greatly as being able to score does anymore, and seeing as the lineup Brad Stevens was forced to work with Wednesday is, essentially, what he’ll have in the post-season, the outlook isn’t great for Boston.
A season defined by one devastating injury after another, the Celtics will now be without Gordon Hayward, Daniel Theis, Shane Larkin and possibly Marcus Smart – who is targeting a May return from a thumb injury – in addition to Irving for what they were hoping to be a vaunted post-season run.
From a Raptors’ perspective, this news, unfortunate as it may be, is solid gold, but it does come with it the weight of expectation.
Toronto is going to be the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference and will set a new single-season franchise wins record. One of their two biggest competitors in the East, Boston, has now essentially been wiped out of contention. All that remains now is to get through LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
This isn’t an easy task by any stretch of the imagination, as Tuesday night’s sobering loss illustrated starkly, but if not now, then when?
The Raptors’ fabulous season has been helped in part by the fact the Celtics were unbelievably unlucky injury-wise this season. Can you honestly bank on that again next season?
Winning the No. 1 seed is a great accomplishment that the Raptors shouldn’t squander and the runway the Celtics have just paved for them cannot be squandered, either.
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