With the Raptors two wins from their first NBA Finals, it’s almost hard to believe how far DeMar DeRozan has come in a couple of weeks. Two weeks ago Wednesday, to be precise, the Raptors were tied 2-2 in their second-round series with the Miami Heat. And DeRozan was a cold mess.
He was making a serious case that everything we’d seen him pull off during the regular season — the hard work that made him a linchpin of a 56-win Raptors team — was a meaningless mirage. Sure, he’d been among the league’s top 10 scorers. And of course he’d been an all-star.