The Raptors visit Indiana on this glorious St Patrick's Day, and they'll hope to have the luck of the Irish with them as they battle a deep Pacers team that is finally getting healthy. How's that for a hyper-specific, yet somehow generic seasonal sentiment?
Indiana is currently 7th in the East, so if the playoffs were to begin today, this would indeed be the Raptors' first round match-up. While the Pacers do have a two game cushion between themselves and both the 8th and 6th spots, the logjam from 3 to 10 in the East is such that if you threw in one or two streaking teams (be it winning or losing) the whole picture might completely change over the next 15ish games.