The Toronto Raptors lost Game 1, again. They played like the stage was too big, again. They turned the ferocious local love of this team into stunned and anxious silence, again. Happens every year, around this time. It’s like nature’s way of telling you it’s time to take the snow tires off.
But it doesn’t have to be destiny that they do this, unless they let it. The Raptors spent all year telling us they were different, and playing like they were different, and then when the real lights turned on, they weren’t.
“It’s different, man,” said shooting guard DeMar DeRozan, who shot 5-for-19 and got torched, along with everyone else, by Pacers star Paul George in a 100-90 Game 1 loss.