Ever-improving DeRozan an embodiment of how far the Raptors have come

The Raptors beat the Pacers 92-73 on Friday night, clinching first place in the Eastern Conference for the first time in team history and setting franchise records for wins in a season with 57.

TORONTO — When DeMar DeRozan was 21 and in his second NBA season, he started all 82 games for a deeply flawed Toronto Raptors team that won only 22 times.

He played nearly 35 minutes a night, averaging a little more than 17 points. The spectacularly enigmatic Andrea Bargnani led the team in both those categories that year, as Toronto lost nine of its first 11, and, at one point, 13 in a row.

Less than a month into the season, 20 per cent of the roster was traded in a salary dump. Peja Stojakovic, who was considered the primary return in that trade, played only two games before he was released.

They were uninspiring days for the franchise. DeRozan looks back on them sometimes.

“Yeah, all the time,” DeRozan said Friday morning before playing the Indiana Pacers. “You’ve got to remember those moments and understand the 22-win season is what keeps you humble when you win 50-plus games in multiple seasons.”

That perspective is necessary in this, the golden era of Toronto Raptors basketball, in which a 50-plus win season isn’t remarkable, but expected. It’s happened three years running. And Friday, with a 92-73 victory over the Pacers, the franchise set a new high-water mark, winning 57 in a season for the first time in its 23-year history. That the Raptors also clinched a first-place finish in the Eastern Conference for the first time was almost an afterthought.

“Whenever you do something that hasn’t been done, it’s always an accomplishment,” DeRozan said. “It speaks volumes to the work that’s been put in, the sacrifices, the failures, and what you work for when everybody’s not watching.”

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DeRozan wasn’t around for the franchise’s leanest years, which came during its infancy in the mid-90’s. But he did suffer through his share of lost seasons. The Raptors followed up that 22-win campaign in 2010-11 with a 23-win one, and a 34-win effort after that. DeRozan didn’t get to play in the playoffs until his fifth year in the league, which, perhaps not coincidentally, was also his first as an all-star.

And while he was enduring all that losing, he never stopped working. As his game has been constantly judged and criticized over the years, all DeRozan’s done is keep getting better.

He’s progressively set new highs in points, assists, rebounds, free throws, and anything else worth counting. He’s matured and evolved. This season he’s shooting—and hitting—more three-pointers than ever before, and smashing his career-high for assists while playing fewer minutes a night.

He’s changed for himself, and he’s changed for his team. As the game and the players around him have shifted, he’s continually found ways to play differently, but never less effectively.

“It’s a growth process,” Raptors head coach Dwane Casey said Friday morning. “You can just see the improvement each and every year. In the days of instant everything, we want instant yesterday. We want to be a champion yesterday instead of growing and watching guys develop. That’s the bit of gratification we get as an organization and a coaching staff. To watch our program grow.”

Friday night’s victory provided a fitting example. In the first quarter alone, DeRozan hit a couple shots, chased down Bojan Bogdanovic for a block in transition, grabbed three rebounds, and dished out a pair of assists, including this no-look find of Serge Ibaka:

That first quarter was loose and free flowing, which played into the Raptors’ hands as they ran a quick, improvisational offence. Indiana, meanwhile, looked every bit a team that played the Golden State Warriors—and won!—24 hours earlier, shooting 22 per cent and scoring only 14 points in the quarter.

But that shouldn’t take away from how well the Raptors played in the early going, which extended into the second quarter when Toronto’s vaunted bench went to work. Jakob Poeltl hit each of his first five from the field, Fred VanVleet dished out three assists, and Pascal Siakam was all over the place, doing things like this:

And this:

The Raptors lagged as the second wore on, which spurred Casey to bring back his starters, who finished the first half with some spirited defence to quiet a Pacers comeback attempt. OG Anunoby was particularly strong, hounding Victor Oladipo around the floor and forcing the Pacers star into three turnovers before half.

“He did a tremendous job of getting into him, being physical, using his length and size,” Casey said. “That’s the OG we need defensively.”

It was the second game in a row the Raptors held an opponent to 33 points in the first half, as the team’s defence has come on strong following some significant issues through mid-to-late March. It was more of the same in the third, as the Raptors held the Pacers to 27 per cent shooting through 36 minutes.

Meanwhile, the offence heated up, led by Ibaka who had a throwback game, scoring a team-high 25 on 10-of-13 shooting, including five three-pointers. Plus, he reminded everyone he’s still a dangerous man in transition:

“He’s doing a better job of making decisions,” Casey said of Ibaka’s night. “That’s what it is. Once he gets a rhythm of making decisions when teams are closing out on him, getting to him, moving the ball, pump-faking, one dribble and up — everything’s going to open up for him.”

The fourth was played more out of obligation than competition, but it’s at least worth noting the Raptors didn’t take their foot off the gas defensively, and held the playoff-bound Pacers to their lowest point total of the season.

“That’s what we hang our hat on,” VanVleet said. “We try to be one of those teams on the defensive end that tightens the screws on people.”

In the end, it was an historic night. A franchise-record for wins, finishing atop the Eastern Conference for the first time, a fourth Atlantic division title in the last five seasons, and another new record with 33 home wins. Casey’s talking about the first-place finish in the East here, but he could be talking about all of it.

“It’s an achievement. It’s an achievement of growth, it’s an achievement of guys continuing to get better,” said the man in his seventh year at the Raptors helm. “Just the growth in all areas of our program is gratifying—not satisfying, but gratifying. We’re not satisfied, we’re not relaxing. But the achievement of our growth is huge.”

And he could be talking about DeRozan, who finished a team-high plus-32 with 12 points and eight assists. Now in his ninth year of NBA basketball, his ninth year with the Raptors, and his ninth year of progressive improvement, he is an embodiment of how far this franchise has come. It’s been a long time since that 22-win season. For DeRozan, and for everyone.

“When I look back at it or I see certain things from back then—it was crazy,” DeRozan said. “You really sit there and say, ‘Damn, you came a long way. You played with that guy? Where’s this guy at?’ To still be on the same path with the same organization, it means a lot.”

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