When the Toronto Raptors take on the former face of the franchise, DeMar DeRozan, and the San Antonio Spurs Thursday, all eyes will be on the return of Kawhi Leonard to a place he once called home, and, of course, the aforementioned DeRozan.
However, amid all of the storylines surrounding this hyped affair, when the players finally step onto the court for opening tip, there’s still be a basketball game to be played.
The Raptors, who owned the NBA’s best record for the majority of this season, will be tasked with overcoming one of the most dominant franchises in all of sports over the past two decades, and despite this 2018-19 Spurs team looking drastically different than years past, it won’t be an easy feat.
In fact, the numbers suggest that Thursday’s matchup in San Antonio will be an extremely tough game for the Raptors.
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+1.5 — Toronto will enter the AT&T Center as narrow underdogs despite owning an overall better record than San Antonio, perhaps for good reason.
.273 — That’s Toronto’s all-time winning percentage in 44 games versus the Spurs. Ugly — and it gets even uglier.
.200 — In 20 road games against San Antonio since the Raptors’ inaugural season in 1995-96, Toronto has won just four times; it’s probably no coincidence that the Spurs hired Gregg Popovich as their head coach on Dec. 10, 1996.
But the Spurs only dominated when the Raptors struggled early on in their existence, right?
.250 — Yeah, not really. The Raptors are 3-9 in their last 12 games against San Antonio, and although they are coming off a solid 122-116 win over the Utah Jazz on New Year’s Day, the team hasn’t been playing great basketball in general lately coming into Thursday’s matchup.
8-7 — The Raptors’ record in their last 15 games is just barely over .500. While they can get by, it’s clear that this team misses their engine in Kyle Lowry, who has been sidelined with a lower-back injury for eight of their last nine games.
1-4 — And it’s been even worse lately on the road, earning just one win in their last five thanks to a late three by Danny Green that squeaked the Raptors past the Miami Heat on Boxing Day.
15-5 — At home, the Spurs play some of the best basketball in the entire NBA, and their 15-5 record shows. They allow 10.4 fewer points per game when in front of their San Antonio crowd as opposed to when they are on the road.
117.2 — In addition, over their last 10 games, the San Antonio Spurs possess the best offensive rating in the league.
All that said, the Toronto Raptors now possess one of the best players in the NBA: Kawhi Leonard, who is playing arguably the best basketball of his career.
45 — A career-high 45 points from Leonard is what the Raptors needed Tuesday night to propel themselves past the visiting Jazz. The 27-year-old was red-hot, hitting 16 of his 22 shots from the field — including some pretty crazy circus shots in a tight fourth quarter.
14 — Leonard has scored at least 20 points in a career-best 14 consecutive games. Vince Carter holds the Raptors franchise record for most consecutive games with 20 or more points (23).
81.5 — That’s Leonard’s personal win percentage, which happens to be the best in NBA history.
And these last two stats speak for themselves, because even in by the numbers, it’s difficult to take the emotion of out Thursday’s contest.
407 — The number of games that Kawhi Leonard played as a member of the San Antonio Spurs over seven seasons.
675 — The number of games that DeMar DeRozan played as a member of the Toronto Raptors over nine seasons — a franchise record.
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