Toronto Raptors: Season Far From Over

By Joshua Howe | Feb 20, 2015

Feb 11, 2015; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Raptors point guard Kyle Lowry (7) shakes hands with guard Lou Williams (23) against the Washington Wizards at Air Canada Centre. The Raptors beat the Wizards 95-93. Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports /

The Toronto Raptors have been almost surprisingly good this season. They’ve proven that their run last season wasn’t a fluke and that chemistry does wonders for a team that, on paper, just doesn’t seem as good as some of the others.

They are second in the Eastern Conference right now with a 36-17 record, and they’ve racked up the most wins they’ve ever had before an All-Star break. Kyle Lowry got to be an All-Star, DeMar DeRozan is getting some much needed extra recovery time and Amir Johnson’s ankles are, for the moment, intact.

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But the road to the playoffs and, perhaps most importantly, keeping their position as the No. 2 seed is going to be far from easy. They’ve got 29 games left, and right behind them are Chicago (34-20), Washington (33-21), Cleveland (33-22) and (surprise!) Milwaukee (30-23), all of whom are capable of making an extra push to steal a better spot for the postseason.

With Atlanta staying a decent distance ahead in the 82-game marathon, the Raptors are the ones who are going to have to fend off all comers.

Unfortunately for them, their schedule isn’t the most helpful.

They have to play 12 teams that have records over .500, and seven of those games are on the road. Beginning after the All-Stark break, the Raps will play a five game stretch that (in order) goes: Atlanta on the road, Houston on the road, New Orleans on the road, Dallas on the road and then Golden State at home.

And as we all know by now, having Golden State in your arena isn’t that much of a bonus.

The rest of the above .500 teams they play are as follows:

vs. Cleveland
@ OKC
@ San Antonio
vs. Portland
@ Chicago
vs. Chicago
vs. Houston

Those are all scary matchups. Cleveland is rising up as a contender, OKC is out for blood in their quest to keep that elusive eight seed, San Antonio often “turns it on” after All-Star weekend and Chicago is one of the East teams looking to move up in the rankings.

If Toronto can survive those games as they have for the season so far, then they might be better off than I’m making out. The remaining 17 games on the schedule, then, are all against sub .500 squads who the Raptors should beat every single time if they’re locked in.

They do have to play most of these games (11) on the road, but unless most of their opponents are looking to play spoiler in some way, they might already be looking ahead to the idea of tanking for a higher pick in this year’s draft, which contains some good prospects.

Here is the list of sub .500 teams:

@ New York
@ Philadelphia
@ Charlotte (twice)
vs. Miami
@ Indiana
vs. Minnesota
vs. New York
@ Detroit
vs. Los Angeles Lakers
@ Minnesota
@ Brooklyn
vs. Boston
@ Orlando
@ Miami
@ Boston
vs. Charlotte

There are a few subtle dangers here to note. Of these teams, two are actually in the playoff race right now: Charlotte and Miami, who sit seventh and eighth with a tied record, respectively. They’re going to be trying to grab every win they can just to stay in the race for the postseason.

As for the teams on the outside looking in, Brooklyn, Boston, Detroit and Indiana are all squads who could make a final push and enter the playoff race. They might actually fight harder than any other team we’ll see (save OKC, of course) as the basketball year begins to wind down.

It can’t be ignored that either Miami, Detroit and Milwaukee all made some wild trades in the last hour of the deadline to get better. They’re going to have even more firepower than they did earlier in the season, though the Raps still hold a major edge in chemistry that should aid them.

Adding things up, Toronto has 18 of its final 29 games away from the Air Canada Center, which includes meetings with seven of the better teams in the league and of whom five are from the beastly Western Conference.

They don’t call NBA seasons marathons for nothing. It ain’t over ‘til it’s over, as they say. This will be an opportunity for the Raps to play together, play hard, fight for something important and finish impressively in the midst of what is sure to be a mish-mash of teams gunning until that final horn blares.

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