If, before the season started, you'd given every member of the Toronto Raptors the option to be playing in May, tied 1-1 in the Eastern Conference semis, odds are they'd all have taken it without blinking.

It has been some kind of winding road to get to that point, though, and the Raptors, after winning a franchise-record 56 regular-season games to nab the East's No. 2 seed, have played some of their worst basketball of the year in the playoffs.

Despite advancing past the Indiana Pacers (the first time the franchise has won a seven-game series) and playing the Miami Heat to a standstill through two games, the Raptors have been outscored by four points per 100 possessions in the postseason. Their defense has actually improved; their offense, though, has been abysmal.

After finishing fifth in the NBA with a 107 offensive rating in the regular season, the Raptors are down to 97.3 points through nine playoff games. They're shooting 40.3 percent from the field and 27.3 percent from 3-point range. One issue is that they've simply missed a good deal of open shots. The bigger issue may be how tunnel-visioned they've been.

The Raptors have had the pick-and-roll ball-handler finish 26.6 percent of their plays, the most by far among all remaining playoff teams. Those plays have yielded 0.74 points on average, least among all remaining playoff teams. They played largely the same style in the regular season, but they've taken it to its logical extreme. In their ugly Game 2 win over the Heat on Thursday, they recorded one assist in the second half.

Swingman DeMarre Carroll, who signed with Toronto in the offseason after thriving for two years in Mike Budenholzer's pass-happy system in Atlanta, feels better ball movement is the answer to the Raptors' current offensive woes.

"(Budenholzer) always told us, we pass up a good shot, we get a great shot," Carroll said Friday, according to Bruce Arthur of the Toronto Star. "And he wants nothing but rhythm shots. He doesn’t want no forced shots. That's why.

"People understand on that team, when you come down and you know you're going to touch the ball, it gives you something psychological that I'm going to touch the ball where I might be able to shoot, I might be able to be the person who assists it. So it gives you some feeling that you might be connected on the offensive end, rather than just going down, running, and you're just not touching the ball."

Carroll also cited what the record-breaking Golden State Warriors have done, noting that they've done it with player and ball movement, and perpetual flow - which stands in stark contrast to the Raptors' recent stand-and-watch approach.

"Plays are better when it's in rhythm, not stagnant," he said. "Some guys like to play stagnant, but I feel like ... it's kind of bred out. Golden State opened it up."

The Raptors play Game 3 against the Heat in Miami on Saturday.