The Raptors Are in a Precarious Position in a Jam-Packed Eastern Conference

The Toronto Raptors are in an unusual spot, clinging to a play-in seed with some crucial games upcoming on their second-half schedule

Aaron Rose | Mar 12, 2021

Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

If the NBA season ended today the Toronto Raptors would be in a very strange spot.

In pre-pandemic times, the Raptors would be on the outside of the playoffs looking in. Their season would be over and they'd be hoping for some good luck in the lottery. At 17-20, they'd have a 1.5% chance to land the No. 1 pick in a loaded 2021 NBA Draft class and about a 7.2% chance of landing a top-four pick in this year's draft, according to Tankathon.

This season, however, things are a little unusual. The league has implemented a play-in tournament in which each conference's ninth and tenth seeds are still sort of alive for a playoff spot. Toronto, who sit in the ninth seed in the Eastern Conference as of Friday, would play host to the tenth-seeded Indiana Pacers in a do-or-die contest. If the Raptors were to knock off the Pacers — who are expecting to have Caris LeVert back on Saturday after successful cancer surgery — Toronto would take on the loser of the New York Knicks vs. Atlanta Hawks game between the conference's seventh and eighth seeds.

Essentially, the Raptors would have two straight must-win games before advancing into the traditional playoffs, in this case, to take on the top-seeded Philadelphia 76ers.

This is foreign territory for the Raptors, not only because of all these new rules and quirks but because Toronto hasn't been lower than a fourth seed during its seven-year playoff streak. Nowadays the Raptors aren't fighting for homecourt advantage in the playoffs, they're just fighting for a spot in the dance.

"We’ve got to make a push," Kyle Lowry said Thursday night following the Raptors heartbreaking 121-120 loss to the Atlanta Hawks.

These are the games Toronto can't afford to lose. Over the final 35 games of the season — including an unscheduled postponed game against the Chicago Bulls — the Raptors will play 13 games against teams right in the middle of the Eastern Conference. They'll meet the Bulls and Cleveland Cavaliers three times each, Knicks and Washington Wizards each twice, and the Hawks, Pacers, and Charlotte Hornets all one more time. Those games start immediately with Toronto scheduled to play the Hornets and Bulls on Saturday and Sunday, potentially without Pascal Siakam, Fred VanVleet, and OG Anunoby who all remain in COVID-19 protocols.

"In the situation we're in now, I'm just hoping to pick anyone off, just pick one off... to stay in touch until we can kind of get the reinforcements back," Raptors coach Nick Nurse said Thursday.

It's possible — as Norman Powell said — that this will be a learning experience for the team. Powell has adjusted to being the top dog on offence and flourished in that role and the Raptors bench has stepped up at times with Chris Boucher chipping in almost 60 points over the last two outings. Maybe the Raptors will bounce back from their COVID-19 issues totally healthy in a few games and reclaim the kind of form they showed last month when they knocked off the Milwaukee Bucks and 76ers in a four-game winning streak. But Toronto's 20 losses are already on the books and having lost all three games to the Boston Celtics and two out of three to the Miami Heat, it's hard to see the Raptors cracking the top five in the East.

Toronto's best hope now might be to string together a hot stretch and grab that sixth seed to avoid the play-in tournament. But in a 72-game truncated season, the playoffs are quickly approaching and the Raptors can't afford to keep dropping these close games.

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