We’ve known they weren’t going to be the same old predictable playoff team since that epochal trade in July. We’ve been watching them win the bulk of their games since October, reeling off the second-best record in the NBA without even sprinting. But here we are, all the way into mid-April, and we’re still waiting to see the Toronto Raptors truly, actually play.
Such is the NBA in 2019. Only in the world’s best basketball league would you hear the best player on the second-best team, Kawhi Leonard, deride the regular season as 82 “practices.” Only in the NBA does a team hold a potential candidate for league MVP out of 22 of those practices in the name of precautionary rest.