“We’re still on life support. It’s not over yet.” That was Raptors head coach Dwane Casey after Game 3. “There’s no ‘give-up’ on this team,” he added.
The series is not over yet, it’s true. Game 4 must and will be played. But there’s no need to search for meaning in Casey’s CoachSpeak, or rate the rate of “give-up” among his players. The Raptors are dead. Whether they’re buried tonight, around 9 p.m., or sometime early next week, they are dead.
The upstart Wizards find themselves ahead 3-0 in a playoff series for the first time, ever, and have a chance to become one of the most decorated Wizards teams in history: In the last 35 years, Washington has won just three playoff series.