Toronto Raptors: Did They Peak Too Early?

The Toronto Raptors ended their five-game losing skid last night by defeating the Philadelphia Tankers in a duel so morbidly mediocre that even DeMar DeRozan’s season-high 35 points seemed to come on minimal effort.

But they ended their losing ways nonetheless and can now (hopefully) begin the climb back toward the place they want to be with the Sauron-esque Eye of the playoffs looming towards them.

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And yet, even as they start their ascent, can they ever reach that place they were at the beginning of the season when they went 13-2 to kick things off? In reality, it must be noted that the Raptors aren’t really (and never were) that good that they could play for a full season like that, but few teams. Similarly, they aren’t as bad as they’ve shown themselves to be lately.

They’re somewhere in between.

Basketball is a game of runs not only in terms of plays on the court, but also win streaks. Stringing together piles of Ws gives teams more and more confidence, whether they are actually as good as they think or not. Hitting these so-called “peak points” at the right time can do wonders for a squad.

Take Doc Rivers’ old Celtics teams for example. They would just go through the season, looking often like they could care less and appearing much less than terrifying. They were always riding their breaks; drifting like a heedless cloud.

And then the storm would come. Late in the season, Doc’s teams would suddenly make a push and hit their peak at just the right time, so that when they entered the playoffs, they were already playing great basketball. Those Celtics teams made two Finals appearances (2008 and 2010), and won one of them.

On the other side of things, there’s clubs like the Clippers of two seasons ago. They rattled off 17 straight wins early on in 2012 and had people thinking, “Holy crap, here they come! They’re finally off to get the title!”

We know how that played out. They peaked too early, having a fine regular season but never again reaching that point of god-like stature. Then they ended up losing in the first round to the Grizzlies in six games and being completely forgotten about.

Oh, except for those people who still think Chris Paul sucks because he doesn’t have a ring. Shout out to you, Skip Bayless fan club!

Anyway, the worry here is that the current Raptors may be facing the same predicament as the Clips of yesteryear. Like L.A., they won a ton of their games at the beginning of the season and had a Frank’s Red “I Put That S*** On Everything!” Hot Sauce level streak of 11 victories in 12 games.

It’s unlikely we’ll see anything like that again this season. So what does that mean for Toronto? An early playoff exit just like the Clips?

Maybe. The Raptors have the 20th-ranked defense in the league, which is far less than ideal. Teams with true title hopes tend to have their defense lying at least in the top 15.

To go along with that, DeRozan has been having a rough season (poor shooting, groin injury) and Kyle Lowry has dropped off significantly ever since he ran out of gas in the game against Portland back on Dec. 30.

But all is not lost! Toronto does still hold the third-best offense in the league, and they’ve got a deep bench that will be extremely helpful in the slower paced games of the postseason. And, hey, would you look at that! They also won’t have to play any teams from the Western Conference unless they make it to The Finals. So that’s a bonus.

It’s still going to be one heck of a struggle though, make no mistake. If the playoffs began right now, Toronto would be playing Miami, which is a scary team to have to play in the first round. And yet maybe this is all just as DeRozan said after the win against Philly; that the team needs situations like this to grow.

Maybe. Maybe not. History is against that idea this late in the season. We might not get to see the Raptors turn it up to 11 again this year, but we also know they’re not a squad who gives up. Even with history prodding at their backs, they’ll march on with a chip on their collective shoulder.

And if all else fails, they’ve still got Tom Sterner. Glorious.

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