The people that run the Toronto Raptors should just come out and say it.
I mean, it’s not that hard to figure out what they’re thinking, but they should put words on it anyway.
They should explain what they want out of the never-ever weirdness of the 2020-21 season.
They should make clear what their opinion of the play-in tournament is, and how they value it.
The players and the coaching staff clearly do.
They proved it again against the Washington Wizards in a game they had to win to keep any realistic hopes of a post-season appearance alive.
They proved it by leading the game nearly wire-to-wire, stumbling slightly in the fourth only to have Fred VanVleet force overtime with a contested 28-footer with 1.3 seconds to play.
And they proved it in extra time as they flew around, hit the floor, got up and hit the floor again. It wasn’t enough. Pascal Siakam missed a fading pull-up three at the horn that would have given Toronto the win and put a worthy exclamation point on a night in which Siakam tied a career-high with 44 points on 17-of-28 shooting.
It went long and the Raptors fell 131-129, dropping them to 27-40 with five games left to play and four games behind the Wizards for the final spot in the play-in tournament.
Gary Trent Jr. contributed 25 points and VanVleet 22, while Toronto held Bradley Beal (28 points) and Russell Westbrook (13 points, 17 rebounds and 17 assists) below their season scoring averages.
There was plenty to like, but how upset – really – were the people that sign the cheques about Toronto’s seven-year post-season streak almost certainly coming to an end?
We can make assumptions, but that’s all. It’s been crickets all season, for the most part.
Raptors president Masai Ujiri should make himself available alongside general manager Bobby Webster to express to a fanbase that has carried the franchise through highs and lows, thick and thin, what the medium-to-long-term goals for the team are.
They don’t have to say “we’re tanking.” But they can tip their hand: talk about development, growth, the future. They can wink.
They could have traded their franchise icon, Kyle Lowry, at the trade deadline.
At the very least they should relieve head coach Nick Nurse of the nightly obligation of trying to explain how a team that won an NBA championship two years ago and had the second-best record in the league last season is doing everything in its power to take the 2020-21 season off.
Because this is getting weird, which is saying something in the midst of a year where the Raptors have spent the season playing away from home in Tampa, had nearly half their team contract COVID at the same time, chose not to trade Lowry and have regularly chosen not to play him since.
That was the case against the Wizards, which could rightly be called a “big game.” Coming into Thursday night’s meeting, Toronto trailed the Wizards by three games for 10th place – the final spot available in the play-in tournament, a new format where teams 7-10 in the conference standings compete for the 7th and 8th seeds.
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Nurse called the game his club’s “Last Chance Saloon” – win and Toronto would be two games out of 10th with five to play. Given Toronto already had the tiebreaker, all it needed to do was finish with an identical record to the Wizards. The odds would still be long-ish, but go 4-1 or 3-2 down the stretch and the Raptors might find themselves in the post-season.
And once there? Anything could happen. This version might be a lot of things, but they’re not bad. They wouldn’t be an easy out in an unpredictable Eastern Conference.
“I tend to think if we do get 10th, then there’s not gonna be a whole lot of teams that wanna see us,” said Nurse.
Lose and the Raptors would be down four games and need to run the table and simultaneously hope the Wizards collapse.
Exciting stuff.
And then at about 5 p.m. ET, the Raptors announced that Lowry wouldn’t play due to rest. Granted, Lowry is 35 years old and it’s been a long season, but rest from what?
He hasn’t played basketball since he put up 37 points and dished 11 assists against the Los Angeles Lakers Sunday in one of the better games of his career.
It’s a clear pattern. Lowry has played just nine of 22 games since Ujiri opted not to trade him before the March 25 deadline. He did have an infected toe at one point, but that was a ruse that couldn’t be used forever.
“Let’s put it this way, I’m very well rested,” Lowry joked after being given four games off last month. “I’m very healthy and I’m very, very, very well rested.”
It’s clear that the Raptors would rather avoid the play-in tournament — and worse — the possibility that they win two games and earn the 8th seed. That would take them out of the draft lottery, and the possibility of moving up to get a top-four pick or even the first-overall selection.
But that’s not Nurse’s place to say.
Is it awkward, I asked him before game, having to dance around the obvious before what should be a key game in a season full of too many games that lacked any evident meaning?
“I think we’ve had a lot of important games here that all go into the final record, and we’ve had a lot of guys out for a lot of the season, if not all of it. You know me, I never get too awkward in these situations, I just kinda wanna know who’s playing at some points before the ball goes up, and then we give the opportunity to these other guys, and we roll with it, and do the best we can.”
This isn’t on Nurse, or on the players who did play, or even on Lowry, who didn’t.
Whoever the Raptors have put on the floor have played hard and played well, for the most part. When the Raptors seemed to be tanking in earnest, they won four straight games in which they were routinely sitting two, three or four starters.
The showdown with the Wizards was no exception. Even without Lowry and OG Anunoby (calf), the Raptors led after every quarter and into the middle of the fourth before a long three by Davis Bertans put Washington up 97-96 with 5:45 to play for the Wizards’ first lead since early in the first quarter.
But for once it was Toronto that kept its offence rolling in the final moments – although Washington having to travel from Milwaukee to play on the second night of a back-to-back might have been a factor. A pair of threes by Trent Jr. – himself playing for the first time after missing six games due to a bruised lower leg – helped push the Raptors back ahead by five with 3:20 to play.
But Westbrook and Beal kept pushing. The all-star Wizards backcourt combined for eight quick points and the two teams headed into the final minute tied. At that point, an offensive foul on the pass by Siakam negated a VanVleet triple and then Beal was fouled on a three-point attempt with 32.4 seconds left. Beal made two-of-three freebies and at the other end Siakam was fouled and made just one-of-two with 20 seconds to go. Stanley Johnson tied up Beal on the inbounds and forced a jump ball, but the Wizards won that and Robin Lopez made both of his free-throws with 15 seconds to play. Siakam scored on a quick dunk but Beal knocked down a pair from the stripe with 8.3 seconds left.
Without a timeout, Siakam rushed the ball up the floor before advancing it to VanVleet, who knocked down the big three that forced overtime.
That proved to be the peak moment as the Raptors couldn’t get on track in the extra period. On one possession they missed four consecutive shots, three of them from beyond the arc, all of them open. Lopez put the Wizards up four with 8.6 seconds left as he made his 11th and 12th free-throws of the night on his way to 24 points off the bench, which was more than all of the Raptors’ reserves contributed. A three-point play by Siakam cut the lead to one, but the Wizards made their free-throws and Toronto’s night was done, its playoff hopes likely with it.
Still, it was great entertainment. Basketball played with passion always is.
But to what purpose? The people that run the Raptors presumably know, but the rest of us can only guess.
