Columnist image

TSN Raptors Reporter

| Archive

TORONTO - To everyone's disappointment, Masai Ujiri kept his media availability session rated PG on Thursday.

This weekend, as you may recall, marks the one-year anniversary of Ujiri's memorable profanity-laced pump up speech ahead of his team's first playoff game in six seasons. The Raptors' passionate GM stood on a stage in front of thousands of fans outside of the Air Canada Centre and dropped an F-bomb at the expense of the opposing Brooklyn Nets. It was no accident and it cost him $25,000.

Despite our best efforts to provoke Ujiri into an encore performance, he was on his best behaviour.

What does he think of Paul Pierce, a familiar foe, who had suggested the Raptors lack the "It" factor?

"I honestly don't have enough money to respond to him," he said with that mischievous smile on his face. "I think if I did have enough money, everybody knows exactly how I would respond to it and how the whole [city] of Toronto would respond to it."

Sadly, there won't be a '[expletive] Washington.'

The Raptors have been here before and they're acting like it.

"Is the momentum the same?," Ujiri asked in rhetoric. "I think last year was the first time and it's always different with the first time. We hadn't been in the playoffs for a long time so that's a little different.

"It's a big stage and I think these guys are fearless and now they kind of know a little bit of what to expect. You know, like in terms of just the magnitude of the playoffs. If you haven't experienced it, it is something you have to go through."

At least on paper, they find themselves at a similar disadvantage. Collectively, the Wizards - like Brooklyn a year ago - come into their first-round series against Toronto as the more experienced team. It's really not that close. 

Washington's starters have appeared in 281 playoff games. The Raptors' first unit has 59 under their belt. Pierce alone outnumbers Toronto's entire eight-man rotation combined. Three of the Wizards' top five players have made it to a Conference Finals or further and while the other two - John Wall and Bradley Beal - have only one playoff year on their resumes, they won a round last year, upsetting the fourth-place Chicago Bulls in this very same bracket.

Toronto's inexperience almost certainly played a part in last year's series, particularly at the outset. Dwane Casey recalls their Game 1 loss at home, describing his team's temperament as "shell-shocked." At this time a year ago there was a youthful naivety to this group. They believed they were ready to compete at the highest level but, as it turns out, nothing prepares you for the playoffs quite like the playoffs.

Now, one year older and seven playoff games wiser, the Raptors are confident they're better prepared for what's to come.

"I feel a lot more comfortable," said DeMar DeRozan ahead of his second career postseason series. "This time last year, I didn't know what to expect. Everything was new to me and I was learning everything on the go. This time, I understand playoff basketball.

"Every single step on that court means something. You have to leave everything you've got on the court, especially if you want to win."

The regular season was oddly uneventful, in the grand scheme of things for the Raptors. It was two in one. They started off hot before predictably cooling down. They traded their once reliable defence in for a top-five offence. They had a first-time all-star, produced a leading Sixth Man of the Year candidate and won a franchise-high 49 games. They did just about all of it with this moment in the back of their minds.

The Raptors came just short of knocking off the veteran Nets and advancing to play LeBron James and the Miami Heat in round two a year ago. It took most of the primary cast of characters many months to get over the play that ended their run.

"It just motivated me to make sure that doesn't happen again," said Kyle Lowry, who laid face down on the court after his shot was blocked by Pierce in the dying seconds of Game 7, sealing the victory for Brooklyn. "And if it ever happens again, I'll make the shot and do something to make sure we're not on the floor mad, I'm on the floor happy and excited."

"The way it went down, it hurt us for a while," DeRozan admitted. "We talk about it, we couldn't wait to get back to this moment, to get a second chance, live it over again, understand what we have to do this time around not to be in the same situation as last year."

It won't be easy. As Ujiri pointed out, the four-five match-up rarely is.

Toronto had its way with Washington during this past season, winning all three meetings but reading much into that would be unwise. One of those games was decided in overtime and another by two points. Beal missed two of them, including the Raptors decisive 19-point victory early in the campaign. All three meetings came before Toronto tailed off in mid-February. But most importantly, as anyone who has either played or coached in the playoffs will tell you, there's something altogether different about this time of year.

"It's completely different from the regular season," DeRozan said. "When you step on the court in the playoffs, everything from the regular season goes out the window. Everyone understands you're fighting for your life. It's much different. It really don't matter if we won three and they didn't win none. It's a new season."

"Different year, different season, different team," Casey echoed. "You will see different faces, different energy levels, different defensive abilities and approaches that you didn't see in the regular season. You can throw a lot of that out the window. Again, we had some success but we can't rely on that to repeat itself at this time of year. Playoffs are a different animal and it has to be that way for us also."

Casey doesn't believe their season will ultimately be defined by the outcome of this series. "It doesn't make or break out season," he insisted. But how could it not? This is the opportunity they've been waiting for, working for. 

This is their chance at redemption, their chance to prove they've learned from their first playoff experience.