Toronto Raptors: The path to the play-in tournament is wide open

The Toronto Raptors have had suffered through unprecedented challenges this season. Unable to play in their home country of Canada because of the ongoing COVID pandemic, they were uprooted to the United States and relocated to Tampa, Florida to play this NBA season.

Over the course of this campaign, they’ve had a COVID outbreak in their ranks, suffered through an excruciating trade deadline when it seemed all but certain that Greatest Raptor Ever Kyle Lowry would be traded, until he wasn’t.

The path to the play-in tournament is wide open for the Toronto Raptors

Thanks in no small part to all of the constant turmoil, injuries, sickness, roster volatility and everything else that has gone into this toxic brew of a season, the Raptors have a mediocre 22-34 record. That puts them on a 28-win pace for a 72-game season, and just a 32-win pace for a standard 82-game season.

There’s nothing impressive about that in the least. However, there’s a suddenly widened path to a potential postseason berth for this team, in spite of the fact that they sit just 11th in the Eastern Conference.

Thanks to the NBA’s new play-in tournament, the 11th-place Raptors have new life.

The way it works is as follows:

"The seventh and eighth-placed teams will play each other one game for the right to be the seven-seed, with the losing team getting another chance in a third game. The ninth and 10th-placed teams will play for the right to be the third game against the loser of the seven vs eight game, while the loser is eliminated and goes directly into the NBA lottery."

This means that even if the Raptors don’t squeeze into the eighth seed (which they won’t because they trail that spot by 6.0 games), they still have at least a puncher’s chance at simply taking it away after the end of the regular season. All they have to do is finish 10th or better, and they’re just a game behind the Chicago Bulls who currently occupy that position.

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The Bulls were dealt a blow on Thursday afternoon when ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that their star, Zach LaVine, would be entering the league’s health and safety protocols for an indeterminate period of time.

Shams Charania of Stadium and The Athletic offered more clarity on the situation, indicating that LaVine is expected to miss 10-14 days as a result. That means he could be out for up to half (or more) of the Bulls’ remaining games. Without LaVine, the Bulls are in serious trouble if they want to hold onto their tenuous grasp of the 10-seed.

This gives the Raptors an inside track. They have the Washington Wizards to contend with, who are tied with them in the standings in spite of having played two fewer games. But the Wizards aren’t really a threat against an engaged and nearly-healthy Raptors team over an 18-to-20 game final sprint with a glimmer of playoff hope on the horizon.

The Toronto Raptors may be entering their final stretch with Kyle Lowry on their roster. He’ll enter free agency next season, and what happens from there is anybody’s guess. There’s no more fitting send-off for Lowry than one more playoff run, brief though it may ultimately be. And overcoming this brutal and horrific season in that fashion is a deserving final act.

This organization, with its championship pedigree, shouldn’t squander the final weeks of Kyle Lowry’s time with them if it can be avoided.