Apr 11, 2019
Raptors draw Magic in first round
The upcoming first-round playoff series between the Toronto Raptors and the Orlando Magic looks like a mismatch on paper, but the Raptors should know better than to take their young opponents lightly, Josh Lewenberg writes.
TORONTO – The Toronto Raptors and the Orlando Magic are two very different teams in two very different stages of the NBA’s constantly evolving and often unpredictable circle of life.
With an average age of 25.6, the Magic are the league’s ninth-youngest club. At 27.3, the Raptors are the fifth-oldest.
Orlando’s starters have appeared in a total of 33 career playoff games and none since 2014. Meanwhile, the Raptors starters have 320 playoff games under their belt. Their rotation has 502. In fact, Serge Ibaka (109), Danny Green (100) and Kawhi Leonard each have more games of postseason experience than the Magic’s entire rotation (75).
The Magic opened the season as a projected lottery team. Squeezing into the playoff in the final week of the campaign was a coup for an organization that hadn’t been there since the Dwight Howard and Stan Van Gundy era seven years ago.
The Raptors? This is just the first step in what they hope will be a long and franchise-changing playoff run. They’ve become a perennial contender in the Eastern Conference, and after adding Leonard, Green and Marc Gasol to an already talented core they have championship aspirations.
The first-round series between these two teams, which will begin in Toronto this weekend, looks like a mismatch on paper, but the Raptors should know better than to take their young opponents lightly. They’ve been on the other side of that mismatch and know what it’s like to have something to prove.
Before the Raptors were mainstays atop the East they were the plucky overachievers. Nobody expected much from them ahead of the 2013-14 campaign – a season that would turn the franchise’s fortunes and inadvertently spark the most successful run in its 24-year history.
Orlando’s current president Jeff Weltman was Raptors boss Masai Ujiri’s right-hand man at the time. Magic swingman Terrence Ross was Toronto’s starting small forward.
Going into their first-round series against the Brooklyn Nets – Toronto’s return to the postseason after a five-year drought – the Raptors starters had just 24 games of playoff experience, even fewer than this Magic team. Three of those starters were making their postseason debuts, including Ross and leading scorer DeMar DeRozan. The veteran Nets – led by Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Joe Johnson and Deron Williams – had 447 playoff games on their resumes.
The series was an iconic one in Raptors lore. It went seven entertaining, back and forth games before Ross’ memorable steal set up Kyle Lowry’s potential series winner, which was blocked by Pierce to eliminate Toronto.
The older and arguably more talented team won, but the young and hungry up-and-comers made things interesting. Perhaps Orlando can pull off the same, ahem, Magic.
Like those Raptors, Weltman’s Orlando team is ahead of schedule. Former Hornets head coach Steve Clifford has done a great job in his first season with the Magic and deserves consideration in the Coach of the Year conversation. Intriguing big man and former sixth-overall pick Jonathan Isaac has taken a step forward as a sophomore. Aaron Gordon and Evan Fournier have become solid and dependable vets, while Ross has settled into his role as a scorer and high-volume three-point shooter off the bench.
However, their difference-maker is Nikola Vucevic, who – at 28 and in his eighth NBA season – has blossomed into an all-star. The talented centre averaged a double-double of 20.8 points and 12.0 rebounds – both career-highs – but he’s also expanded his game, recording a personal-best 3.8 assists and shooting 36 per cent from beyond the arc.
In four games against Toronto this season, Vucevic averaged 20.0 points and 15.5 rebounds on 55 per cent shooting, although only the final meeting came after the Gasol trade and it was the one the Raptors won decisively.
The two teams split the four-game season series, but Orlando outplayed Toronto in the first three meetings, with the Raptors stealing the first on Green’s buzzer beater. While it’s always wise to take the season series with a grain of salt at this time of year, there are also lessons to be taken from it.
What should have the Raptors learned about the Magic? For one, their eighth-ranked defence is legit. Toronto was only held under 100 points nine times this season, but three of those games came against Orlando.
Two of the Raptors’ worst losses of the season – 29-point and 15-point defeats – came at the hands of the Magic, although Toronto was without one of Leonard or Lowry in each game.
The Magic’s length and athleticism caused problems for the Raps, particularly up front where they feature Gordon, Isaac, Wesley Iwundu and Montreal-native Khem Birch, who’s had a solid under-the-radar campaign.
No team defended Raptors breakout star and Most Improved Player frontrunner Pascal Siakam better than the Magic. They held him to just 34 per cent. He shot 56 per cent against the rest of the NBA. If there’s one challenge the Magic present that figures to translate into the playoffs it’s their defence.
However, if we’re reading into the season series, the most recent meeting – a dominant 121-109 Raptors win in Toronto on April 1 – is probably a better indication of how these teams match up at full strength.
Gasol helped hold Vucevic to just 13 points on 5-of-14 shooting in that game and should be the primary defender on him in this series. Meanwhile, Ibaka – a former member of the Magic – has been playing great basketball off the bench of late. Without much depth at the point guard position, Orlando doesn’t have an answer for Toronto’s tandem of Lowry and Fred VanVleet.
The series should be a great test for Siakam, who will have to prove he can adjust and adapt to a defence that’s capable of taking him out of his comfort zone. Even if Siakam is neutralized, the Magic don’t have a defender with the pedigree or the skill set to stop Leonard, who should be the best player in the series, by a mile.
The Magic have come out of nowhere and don’t figure to go away quietly. The future is bright in Orlando, but do they have enough talent and experience to push Toronto? If the Raptors are going to make a statement, that they’re a different team than the one that’s repeatedly been embarrassed by LeBron James and even struggled to get through first-round matchups unscathed, they simply can’t allow it.
They’re the older, more talented team. To inspire confidence going into a much tougher second-round test – likely against the Philadelphia 76ers – they’ll have to look like it here.