MILWAUKEE—It was just one game, but of course nothing is just one game. To get to where the Toronto Raptors are, most of the mountain has to have been climbed already. You can reduce the seven-month burden with load management, as the phrase goes. You can stop practising. The Raptors still practise once in a while, sure. But they may not again.
This is partly because Toronto is loading minutes on their main players like minutes are an all-you-can-carry shopping spree. And they are doing this because, well, somebody’s got to play.
“The season’s a gruelling season,” said point guard Kyle Lowry, after his 40-minute, 30-point performance in Toronto’s 108-100 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference final.