Some have them, some lose them, some never get one.
But without one?
A team never really becomes a team. Potential never gets fully realized.
As the Toronto Raptors get ready to play one of the most anticipated games in franchise history and enjoy a rare opportunity to take a pressure-free swing at doing something great, it’s clear that they’ve already gained something vital through their roller-coaster first-round series with the Philadelphia 76ers.
A team identity.
As they pull together to complete a comeback from being down 0-3, they have replaced hope with belief and confidence with knowledge. Their collective will to compete is widely shared and resolute.
A win in Game 6 may come and – who knows – after that a history-making win in Game 7 which would make the Raptors the first team in the 75-year history of the NBA to comeback from trailing 3-0 in a best-of-seven series.
It’s a delicious prospect to think about.
It would rock the league and send a message – again – that the Raptors are an organization that is able to sort through the noise and find the signal.
Pull it off and it won’t displace any of the long list of remarkable moments that went into the 2019 championship run, but it would almost certainly take its place among any other accomplishment in franchise history.
But almost as important is that the Raptors have given themselves a chance and created a shared belief in what they are capable of when they play as one.
“If you ask everybody, they’d say, ‘OK, they’re young. How long is it gonna take for them to figure it out?’” Chris Boucher replied when asked why his team was still fighting after being in such a deep hole to start the series.
“When you look at talent, hard work, passion, I think we all had that, from Fred [VanVleet] all the way through David Johnson. You can tell when the pieces are put together, we can be a really good team. Especially when are backs are against the wall, I feel like that’s when we perform our best, honestly.”
Their identity began taking shape as they recovered from a slow start to the season; was forged through a successful run at a playoff spot and is now being hardened in the fire of a playoff series that has had more highs and lows than some teams experience in a full season.
The Raptors may have found themselves down 3-0, but they didn’t believe they would stay down 3-0.
Sure enough, the series is 3-2 and the Raptors are gunning for more.
“It's everything we've been through all year,” said Gary Trent Jr. “Whether it's injuries, whether it's COVID protocols, whatever it may be, you know, we weathered the storm every time. We try to go out there and play. Again, stay level-headed. Don't get too high or too low, no matter what the situation is, good or bad. So continue to just go.”
Teams need stories to tell about themselves, reference points that can they navigate from through trying times. Good teams create good stories. Bad teams or under-achieving teams end up in a hall of mirrors reflecting back their past failures.
The current edition of the Sixers, hastily constructed around a pair of star-crossed superstars in Joel Embiid and James Harden, led by Doc Rivers who has coached teams that crashed and burned while leading 3-1 three times – something no one else has done once – can’t be enjoying what they see in themselves right now.
Meanwhile the Raptors are weaving an underdog tale as the foundation for the first playoff experience of the post Kyle Lowry era. Sure the bright lights of the post-season combined with injuries and illness put them on their back heel early, but they didn’t stay there. They didn’t believe their performance in Games 1 or 2 represented who they are.
“We can’t all forget we were all pretty discombobulated at the start of the series,” said Raptors head coach Nick Nurse. “Game 1 we lost three key guys in our rotation, I mean, that’s tough to deal with let alone you’re on the road and you’re in your first playoff series, so, we just weren’t in a state – we weren’t doing our basic things. I think we were just in a little bit of a funk.”
And Game 3? Where they lost on Sixers star Joel Embiid’s buzzer beater?
A temporary setback as a preamble to a comeback, and a harsh but valuable lesson on how slim the margin for error is in post-season basketball
“I’ve been with Toronto for so long. I’ve seen buzzer beaters … [normally] you just get to the next game,” said Boucher. “But that one, it actually sticks to you. You see 3-0, it kind of hurt. [You think] ‘Maybe I could have contested more. Maybe I could have stopped that play.’ It changed the whole series. It definitely hurts more, and you don’t want to be in that position. … You think about every mistake you make and you’re like, ‘Well, we were up 10, that turnover might have cost us the game.’ That’s really how you think about the game a lot more. That’s what the playoffs do.”
It's the kind of experience that can shred lesser teams. The Raptors pulled together.
“Our only thoughts we had was winning the next game,” said Trent Jr. “No matter what that was, how we had to do it. Nothing else was in our head but trying to get a win.”
They got one and then two. Now they’re in Game 6 and looking for one more. They might or they might not, and winning Game 6 doesn’t guarantee anything except a Game 7.
But if the rewards don’t come now, they will surely come later. Trent Jr. has shown himself capable of affecting playoff games after struggling while he was sick in Games 1 and 2. Pascal Siakam has shown he can lead a team after his critical no-show in the second half of Game 3. At 20 years old Scottie Barnes has already learned what it takes to win games that matter. Boucher, Precious Achiuwa, OG Anunoby – they’re all more polished players heading into Game 6 than they were coming out of Game 2.
The Raptors are a more polished, cohesive team.
And they’re not done yet. They’re young and still finding their way towards the horizon of what they could become. It will take time.
But for now? They believe in themselves and believe they can make history.
“We talked about it a little bit, being down 3-0,” said Nurse. “[That] if somebody could do it, it’d be us.”
As team identities go, believing you can do what has never been done is a hell of a foundation to build from.
