It was a measure of the Toronto Raptors that the question of losing the best player in the world got boring. All season, the Raptors didn’t let Kawhi Leonard’s absence define them: They didn’t talk about him at training camp unless asked, and they didn’t change how they approached the game. They just played, every night, with the heart of a champion.
But some things can’t be replaced. The Raptors were up by 12 points late in the third quarter, and up eight going into the fourth quarter of Game 2 of their second-round series with the Boston Celtics, and they lost 102-99.