You have to hand it to the Raptors. Even when they’re a top seed, have the fourth-best odds to win a championship, and the depth to make a deep run, nobody’s better at hyping up a first round Game 1.
History is a huge factor here, obviously. The Raptors are 1-12 in Game 1s over franchise history, with the last one coming all the way back in 2001 — and that was a second round series! When it comes to first rounds, the team is even more shook.
Part of that is expectations: maybe a raucous crowd creates too much pressure, or the growing stage takes 48 minutes to get used to.