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Raptors ready for a season-opener unlike any other after a year spent south of border

TORONTO - Nick Nurse says he can always feel a buzz in the air a couple of days out from a Raptors home game in Toronto — an agreeable hum the coach hasn’t felt in nearly two years.

The Raptors host the Washington Wizards on Wednesday to tip off a season that’s different in so many ways. Longtime leader Kyle Lowry is gone. There’s no superstar like Kawhi Leonard. And the team is back on this side of the border, home — finally — after COVID-19 protocols forced the Raptors to call Tampa, Fla. “home” last season.

It was a poor substitute to home.