Dec 24, 2020
Raptors open unusual season with uncharacteristic loss
At one point, it looked like the Raptors might bring some much-needed normalcy to a predictably bizarre night around the NBA. It looked as if the Raptors we’ve come to know were back. Then, like just about everything else in 2020, things went off the rails, Josh Lewenberg writes.
TORONTO – At one point, it looked like the Raptors might bring some much-needed normalcy to a predictably bizarre night around the NBA.
Even with the unfamiliar surroundings of Tampa’s Amalie Arena – the team’s temporary residence, some 2,100 kilometres away from the friendly confines of Scotiabank Arena – serving as the backdrop, Toronto’s season opener began as most of its home games do.
The recognizable voices of Herbie Kuhn and Mark Strong – the club’s long-time public address announcers – introduced the starters, while Kyle Lowry led his teammates through their regular, and still delightful, exercise-themed intro routine.
The team’s performance provided comfort, as well, at least early on. Pascal Siakam looked like the pre-pandemic, All-Star version of himself. Lowry was in mid-season form, hitting four of his six three-point attempts in the first half, and doing all the little things you’ve come to expect from the 15-year vet.
Even in uncertain times, you can count on Lowry drawing a charge or two each night, and he didn’t disappoint – getting in front of Pelicans guard Josh Hart early in the second quarter, setting his feet, and absorbing the contact, like we’ve seen him do so many times before.
The bench came in, gave the team a lift and a double-digit lead, and Toronto went into the halftime break with a seven-point cushion.
It looked as if the Raptors we’ve come to know were back. Then, like just about everything else in 2020, things went off the rails. They shot an abysmal 3-for-22 from long range over the final 24 minutes, while New Orleans went 11-for-20. They committed 21 turnovers, many of them a result of some “early-season misgivings”, as head coach Nick Nurse put it afterwards. Their lead evaporated, and while it’s not entirely unusual to see them give up a lead, they rarely surrender as quickly as or as easily as they did on Wednesday. This time there was no late-game run, no comeback bid.
It was the first time they dropped their season opener since 2012 and the first time they fell below .500 since they were 16-17 on January 7, 2014 – the year that launched this current era of Raptors basketball.
“It got tough for us,” said Norman Powell, who scored 12 points off the bench but shot just 2-of-11 in his team’s 113-99 loss to the Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram-led Pelicans. “They were aggressive and were able to hit shots. Our defence was kind of lax, and our offence wasn't really there to carry us. We missed a lot of open shots. I missed a lot of open shots.”
Any semblance of normalcy will be hard to come by this season, as Powell and the Raptors – as well as the rest of the league’s teams – were reminded before most clubs even kicked off the new campaign.
Powell spent the past few days going through the league’s COVID-19 protocols after somebody in his inner circle returned an inconclusive test. He wasn’t cleared to play until Wednesday afternoon, roughly two hours prior to game time, having been forced to miss a couple of practices in the days leading up to it.
“I did everything right in terms of following the protocol, making sure that I was good, I was safe, people around me were safe, but still, you can get caught up in inconclusive tests and whatnot,” said the 27-year-old guard. “It was kind of frustrating, you know, to sit out the important days leading up to the game. Just being at home, hoping, wishing, praying that you get cleared [in time] to be able to get a workout in before [the game]. It was tough.”
It’s also the reality that the league and its teams face as they try to get through the season as smoothly – and as safely – as possible, given the circumstances. Nobody said basketball in a global pandemic would be easy, especially with teams travelling around the United States and attempting to squeeze 72 games, and the playoffs, into a condensed seven-month window.
Other sports have pulled off variations of this undertaking, to varying degrees of success, but the NBA will have to overcome some unique challenges along the way. Basketball rosters are smaller than baseball or football clubs, meaning that a few positive cases are more likely to disrupt a team’s season. And, given the nature of the schedule, it’ll be far more difficult to postpone games than it has been for the NFL, where they only play once a week.
It didn’t take long for the virus to make its presence felt on the 2020-21 campaign. Earlier on Wednesday, the league was forced to call off a game between Houston and Oklahoma City because the Rockets didn’t have enough available players. Three Rockets players returned tests that were either positive or inclusive and four others were considered close contacts and had to be quarantined.
To make matters worse, James Harden – the disgruntled superstar who has taken his protest to another disturbing level – was deemed unavailable and subsequently fined $50,000 for violating the NBA’s health and safety protocols by attending a private indoor party earlier in the week.
It may have been the first postponement of the season – on its second day, no less – but it almost certainly won’t be the last.
“I mean this is 2020,” said Siakam, one of the Raptors’ bright spots on Wednesday, with 20 points, six rebounds and six assists in the opener. “I feel like we kind of got warned a bit. I kind of knew that there were going to be some games that were going to be postponed, and we’ve just got to get used to it… We’ve got to focus on us and continue to be pros and go out there and be ready to play. If a game is postponed or whatever the case might be, it is what it is.”
From a basketball standpoint, the Raptors should be fine. Although their ability – or lack thereof, on occasion – to generate offence in the half court remains an issue, you can probably chalk the Game 1 loss up to cold shooting and some early-season rust.
The real concern supersedes anything that took place on the court Wednesday. It’s the new normal – positive and inconclusive tests, postponed games, and what it could all mean for the viability of this season.
“Things like this are going to happen throughout the season,” Powell said. “You’ve just got to stay disciplined and continue to follow the protocol to keep the people around you, and the team, and your loved ones, safe. I'm going to continue to do so, and hopefully this won't happen again.”