DeMar DeRozan remembers too many losses and too many struggles and too much disappointment not to revel in being with a Toronto Raptors team that once again has made franchise history. In his ninth season, a career that included an ugly 22-win second campaign, DeRozan has now seen the best year ever as the Raptors routed the Indiana Pacers 92-73 on a history-making Friday night at the Air Canada Centre. “It just shows that once you put your mind toward something, work toward a goal, it can be accomplished,” DeRozan said after the home team blew out Indiana. “We did that. Now, we’ve got another goal that we want to reach as well. So this gives us the confidence that we can do it and take it to another level.”
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Toronto clinched first place in the Eastern Conference for the first time ever. The victory was the team’s 57th of the season, eclipsing the team record set two seasons ago. Their 33rd home win marks another franchise record. And with three games left in the season, if they run the table they’ll reach the 60-win plateau, long considered a benchmark for a franchise. And Dwane Casey will still be a cool dad in his neighbourhood.
Toronto Raptors forward Serge Ibaka, right, smiles with teammate Jonas Valanciunas on the team bench during. Ibaka scored 25 points — the most he’s ever had as a Raptor — and tied a season high with five three-pointers, while also grabbing eight rebounds. ( Frank Gunn / The Canadian Press )
“I think the Raptors are cool now,” Casey said, discussing his team’s growing popularity before the game. “Before, when I first got here, basketball, you know, it was basketball. But now it’s fun, it’s cool. Kids at my daughter’s school, they wear Raptors gear, hats. Some of it I’ve given ’em, but it’s cool. “They’re on the playground playing basketball in sub-zero weather. You see hoops in the driveway instead of hockey nets — and that’s never going to change. This is always going to be a hockey country, and I understand that and respect that, but it’s still cool to play basketball now.” Especially the way the Raptors have played it this season. “There’s a sense of gratification, watching the growth of the program ... from scratch to the No. 1 seed in our conference,” Casey said post-game. “So that’s good. We’re not satisfied. We still have some things to get done and work on and to accomplish, but I know everyone in that locker room had something to do with it.”
With a far more diverse offence and a bench that’s the best in the NBA, Toronto has any number of ways to win games. They got Friday’s on the strength of a defence that held Indiana to less than 35-per-cent shooting from the field and an explosive offensive night from Serge Ibaka. The veteran forward scored 25 points — the most he’s ever had as a Raptor — and tied a season high with five three-pointers, while also grabbing eight rebounds. DeRozan had 12 points and eight assists, and Jakob Poeltl added 10. The Raptors defence was as good for stretches Friday as it has been in weeks, holding Indiana to 25-per-cent shooting in the first half while taking a 12-point lead into the break. OG Anunoby, who has seem to come out of a kind of mini-funk, did a wonderful job limiting Indiana’s Victor Oladipo, who only got four shots and had two points in the first half. “I thought he did a heckuva job,” Casey said on Anunoby’s work. “He didn’t play against him the last time because his ankle was hurt, but he did a tremendous job of getting into him, being physical and using his length and size, and we need that. That’s the OG that we need defensively. He made it hard on Oladipo, who is one of the most dynamic guards in our league, and he did a good job with him.”
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TORONTO — The celebratory Atlantic Division T-shirts were draped neatly over each player’s chair in the post-game locker-room.
The Toronto Raptors barely glanced at them.
On an historic night they clinched the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, won the division title, and set a franchise record for regular-season wins, there was no celebrating. The Raptors were only looking forward.
"Journey’s not over. Next question," Kyle Lowry put it bluntly, on their regular-season accomplishments.
Serge Ibaka scored a season-high 25 points to lift the Raptors to a 92-73 victory over the Indiana Pacers on Friday, Toronto’s 57th win of the season, and 33rd at the Air Canada Centre. Both topped the previous franchise highs set in the 2015-16 season.
The Raptors (57-22) have three games left in the regular season before they embark on their fifth consecutive post-season, and coach Dwane Casey said now is not the time for reflection.
"It’s gratification but you’re not satisfied, that’s the way I like to put it," Casey said. "We haven’t got to where our ultimate goal is."
DeMar DeRozan added 12 points, while Jakob Poeltl finished with 10, and Lowry doled out nine assists.
Glenn Robinson had 12 points, Trevor Booker finished 11 points, and Canadian and former Raptors guard Cory Joseph scored six off the bench for the Pacers (47-33).
Playing in their Drake-inspired black and gold OVO jerseys, the Raptors led from the opening tipoff and, other than a second-quarter blip when they allowed the Pacers to pull within four points, they dominated for most of the night in front of a capacity Air Canada Centre crowd that included Drake.
They pulled away in the third quarter thanks largely to Ibaka, who shot a perfect 5-for-5 — including a pair of three-pointers — that put the Raptors ahead by 27 points. They took a 72-49 lead into the fourth.
The sizable lead allowed Casey to go to his bench for the final frame, giving the starters some much-appreciated rest before the playoffs begin on April 14.
A pair of Robinson threes midway through the fourth pulled the Pacers to within 17, but the visitors couldn’t put a significant dent in Toronto’s lead. As the clock ticked down the final seconds, the ACC crowd stood and applauded the Raptors’ regular-season record.
DeRozan said achieving the No. 1 seed shows "that once you put your mind toward something, work toward a goal, it can be accomplished.
"We did that. Now, we’ve got another goal that we want to reach as well," DeRozan said. "So this gives us the confidence that we can do it and take it to another level."
The Raptors’ magic number on the night was one — either a Toronto win or Boston loss Friday clinched them the No. 1 seed, and home court for the duration of the Eastern Conference playoffs.
The regular season played out in a series of step-by-step goals, DeRozan said, finally culminating in earning the top seed.
"That’s one of those goals that you fight for, you strive for," he said. "That’s what motivates you, is to get there and understand you took care of business. We’ve got home court advantage throughout the playoffs so let’s use that to our advantage. Little things, step by step, that’s how we look at it."
Casey scoffed when questioned about potentially resting players down the regular-season stretch, saying the team is only now rediscovering its rhythm after a handful of poor performances.
"That’s bullcrap. If you’ve been around the last couple of years, you’ve seen what totally shutting guys down for a few games does to their body," Casey said. "You may rest a guy a few minutes, or whatever a game, but there won’t be anybody that’s going to be taking the rest of these next few games off, because we’re just now these last couple of games have got a sense of rhythm.
"So, what rest? I don’t what guys’ minutes tonight were … Kyle was 28. What rest?"
A solid defensive effort saw the Raptors hold Indy to 22 per cent shooting in the first quarter and, when Poeltl scored on a reverse layup with less than a minute to go, Toronto went ahead by 17 points. The Raptors took a 26-14 lead into the second quarter.
The Pacers cut Toronto’s lead to just four points with a 10-0 run midway through the second, but a three by Lowry capped a mini Raptors run that sent them into halftime up 45-33.
The Raptors host Orlando on Sunday in their last regular-season home game.
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.”
