Now the Raptors really get to play around if they want to.
A 108-99 win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday sealed their Eastern Conference fate, and rendered the final three seeding games moot for a Toronto team that will begin defence of its NBA title as the No. 2 seed when the playoffs open in a week.
And even with a juicy game against the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks on tap Monday night, Toronto coach Nick Nurse knows he’s playing with house money.
“I would say my gut feeling today is we have played pretty heavy minutes, we have done what we kind of needed to do, and went 4-1 to get this thing to where we needed it to be,” Nurse said after Toronto reached 50 wins for the fifth season in a row.