Of course, it’s not often that you start praising the end of the season by talking about the good of the team, but in a season where no one expected the Raptors to do anything substantial, it was one of the best and most entertaining stories in the NBA. mainly because of their ability to fight through adversity – something that has become a big part of the franchise’s identity. This is a team that no one expected to be in the playoffs, which struggled to reach No. 5 in a competing Eastern Region, despite constantly losing its best players due to injuries and absences related to COVID. It’s a team no one expected to fight from 3-0 when Joel Embiid hit a buzzer-beater in Game 3, which lasted a long time, and became just the 14th of 143 teams in NBA history to rally back. and force a game 6. The Raptors lost game 6, but fought the whole game and left it all on the floor. This is a cliché, but as a sports fan, what more could you ask for? Especially after a two-year relocation due to a global pandemic, the Raptors returned to Toronto and gave their basketball-deprived fans something to cheer for. It was not always easy, but they fought nonetheless. “My message [after the game] was that, as a whole, I thought we spent a huge amount this year with a lot of things and just kept fighting and playing and getting better and we kept discovering things, “Nick Nurse said of his closet message. room after the loss. “And it was never really smooth, right? There was always a big bang on the road. We would win six and three kids we would get hurt and we would have to regroup and lose three and win six and lose three and, you know, we kept going back all year. And I give them a lot of credit for that, [for] hanging in there. “ The story goes on When I asked the franchise symbol Kyle Lowry if his team this year is reminiscent of the best teams he played for as a member of the Raptors, he replied: “Yes. They play hard every night. They are everywhere. They mix. They are athletic, they help each other very well. They do not give up much.” “They remind me a lot of the team that, when we were 15 in the fourth quarter, we [used to] find ways to win games, scrap and nails and find a way and fight to win a game. This is what these guys do. “There is never a time when they just do not feel they can win the game.” The Raptors left what they had on the floor, but the talented Sixers were just too many to overtake. (Getty) The same can be said for the Raptors’ ability to bounce after a defeat. In fact, the team has never lost more than three games in a row this season and made this series competitive as it looked like the Sixers could sweep them after Game 3. Becoming one of only eight teams to be forced a game 6 in this state is says, and says a lot about this roster ‘s self-confidence and ability to concentrate as a team instead of turning against each other when their chips were low. “I think the part we have is just unity. Like, we all understand what we have to do, we understand the work, we understand the work we have in hand. And it is this coherence that brings us to the building every day. And it brings us and makes us work. It takes us the victories we need. “It puts us on the path to knowing that we can trust each other,” Thad Young told the Raptors. “We go out there and play as hard as we can, everyone listens to each other, no one is bigger than the team, so we can go out there and win basketball games.” Given the composition of the Raptors team, it should come as no surprise that it is a team of fighters. After all, these are mostly players who have been ignored during their careers and to some extent are still the only team on the northern frontier, especially considering that Game 6 was played on NBA TV and not on TNT or ESPN in the United States. The Raptors’ highest pick in the draft outside of rookie Scotty Barnes is the acquisition of Thad Young at No. 12, while their opponent is known for accumulating multiple options in the top-3 in a row during the “season of the process”. They are players who have defied odds throughout their careers, so it is no wonder that so many of them have a brand on their shoulder. There are many ways to build a basketball team, of course, but what the Raptors have done is admirable because in many cases they are less interested in physical skills and more in character. That is, are you willing to train your opponents, not only during the games, but also in the gym when no one is watching you? Are you willing to leave it all out, despite the weight on your body and mind during a season of 82 races? And are you willing to do everything in the service of the team and not the individual? If you look at the game that the Raptors showed and the evolution of their players during the season, it seems obvious that the answers to all these questions are consistent: yes. Again, as a sports fan, what more could you ask for?
Breaking it
Eventually, the Raptors were overturned by their inability to separate the floor and scored three-pointers against the Sixers, not only in the decisive game 6, but throughout the series, putting too much pressure on Pascal Siakam to create without space. to do it. In fact, the Raptors made 23, 25 and 20 percent of three in the last three games of the series, while the Sixers made 40 percent in the decisive game, beating them 48-21 from three in the 6th game. While both teams had similar game plans to remove the color – where each team’s star player works best – and force players to beat them from the outside, it was the Sixers who won the battle, with Danny Green to hit as many three-pointers (5) as all the original Raptors in game 6. “We have to develop in many areas, and this is definitely one of them,” Pascal Shiakam told me after the game. “I think we have taken many steps, we have become much better. You can see it in the season. It was obviously up and down, but we got better. Knowing this team and our front office and the people we have in the organization, I know the goal is to continue to get better and look at all these areas and improve and become a much better team next year. ” The Raptors will have the complete middle-level exception to spend on free agencies and will have to aim a sniper to help the trio of Fred VanVleet, OG Anunoby and Gary Trent Jr. – the only reliable three-point high-volume shooters this season. However, according to Siakam, the Raptors will need internal development beyond the arc. They threw the three-pointer to the 10th lowest percentage in the league this season, and this should be improved so that this team can remove some pressure from its stars and finally take the next step towards the controversy.
A player who stands out
Chris Boutcher scored 19 points in the playoffs in the first half. The 28-year-old forward from Montreal was everywhere in it, finishing with 25 points and 10 rebounds. He immediately gave the Raptors an energy boost from the bench, returning from a slow start to the season to become one of their most important players in the crucial game. Boucher – with the help of excellent mediator Thad Young or Thagik Johnson – broke the Sixers’s belt defense in the second quarter of this game, after constantly cutting behind the Sixers’s defense line and finishing on the edge of the box. After scoring just 29 points in the first quarter due in large part to the defense of this zone, the Raptors exploded for 34 points in Q2, because after Boucher destroyed the zone with his noise and cut, Pascal Siakam began to separate the defense human’s. The Sixers went to. In fact, the two combined to score the Raptors’ first 15 points in the second half, but it was all because Bauser gave the incredible spark from the bench to force the Sixers to change their defense, which allowed Shiakam to start cooking. “Yes, I mean, listen, when he gives this relentless energy, he can make a lot of good things happen,” Nurse told Boucher. “He was cutting, flying around and rebounding. We really needed him because I thought we did not have much from some other areas tonight. So at least we had a huge night from him on the bench. “ Bauser will be an unlimited free agent this summer, but the Raptors retain his bird rights, allowing them to exceed the pay ceiling to sign him again. He developed a very nice chemistry with Young off the bench and the Raptors could theoretically bring these two back to have similar momentum next year, if they choose. Either way, after a slow start to the season, Boucher is back in a big way. And when he gets paid this summer, he’s worth every dollar he makes.
News and notes
Stay tuned for more season ending coverage from me in the coming days on this site. You can also follow me on Twitter (@OrenWeisfeld) for more coverage. Thank you all very much for reading and making this season so wonderful. I appreciate you all! More from Yahoo Sports
