The big screen at the Air Canada Centre trumpeted the accomplishment Wednesday night. The next morning, so did the front pages of all the Toronto papers.

The Raptors notched 50 wins for the first time in team history, thanks to a 105-97 triumph over Atlanta.

Had point guard Cory Joseph not known better — had he not witnessed the travails of the local NBA team firsthand growing up in the Toronto suburbs — he might have found the whole celebration to be overblown.

“I got spoiled with the Spurs,” Joseph said Friday by phone from Memphis, before the Raptors took aim at win No. 51. “The fans, they loved it. But it’s really not our ending goal.”

Joseph spent his first four NBA seasons in San Antonio, where fans won’t even crack a bottle of Boone’s Farm at the Spurs’ 50th win.

He returns to the AT&T Center on Saturday hoping to prevent the Raptors from becoming party to another record-setting night.

Having long since pocketed their 17th consecutive 50-win campaign, the Spurs are sitting on 63 victories for the second time in team history. With one more, the Spurs will supplant the 2005-06 team atop the single-season chart.

“The regular season is the regular season,” said Spurs guard Danny Green, whose team is also an NBA-record 38-0 at home. “The bigger picture is us hanging another banner, getting another ring.”

A backup on the Spurs’ 2014 championship team, Joseph has been there, done that.

In a perfect world, in which money is no object and playing time is infinite, the 24-year-old Joseph might still reside in San Antonio.

Instead, Joseph became collateral damage in the Spurs’ pursuit of free-agent forward LaMarcus Aldridge last summer.

“He was an important part of our success,” coach Gregg Popovich said. “He’d still be on our team, but you can’t pay everybody.”

Joseph insists he harbors no ill will toward the team that gave him his first NBA job.

“If I was in their position, I’d do the same thing,” Joseph said.

Sometimes life has a way of working out, and it did for Joseph.

When the Raptors offered him a four-year, $30 million contract and the promise of more minutes to play 30 miles from home, Joseph couldn’t sign fast enough.

Backing up All-Star point guard Kyle Lowry, Joseph has appeared in 74 games this season, averaging career highs in scoring (8.5 points per game), assists (3.1) and rebounding (2.6).

He fills an important role on a team with the best odds of unseating the Cleveland Cavaliers atop the Eastern Conference.

“I didn’t expect much coming in,” said Joseph, a native of Pickering, Ontario, east of Toronto. “I just wanted to do what I do, put in the work and see what happened.”

That’s the approach Joseph took from the beginning, after the Spurs made him the 29th pick in the 2011 draft out of the University of Texas.

Joseph was part of a two-man Spurs draft class that year. The other was Kawhi Leonard, now an All-Star and an MVP candidate.

Fans held lower expectations for Joseph, who had played one pedestrian season at UT. So did some of Joseph’s new Spurs teammates.

“I was not a big fan of his the first year,” Manu Ginobili said. “I couldn’t picture what his potential was.”

Joseph bided his time on Popovich’s bench, at one point volunteering for a stint in the Development League. Eventually, he became a serviceable third point guard.

Joseph’s lasting Spurs moment: His dunk on Oklahoma City’s Serge Ibaka in garbage time of a blowout loss in Game 4 of the 2014 conference finals, which turned the emotional tide of that series.

“He left us a completely different player,” Ginobili said.

Joseph credits his time playing for Popovich, and alongside pros such as Ginobili, Tim Duncan and Tony Parker, with making him the player he’s become.

“I learned to do everything the right way,” Joseph said. “You saw so many guys lead by example. You saw the work they put in every day, to get to be where they are at the end of every year.”

With the playoffs fast approaching, Joseph hopes to bring some of that know-how to a Raptors team that has only been past the first round once in its history.

Joseph knows well the franchise’s heartbreak.

He was 9 years old in 2001, when Vince Carter missed the most famous 3-point try in team history, sealing Philadelphia’s Game 7 victory in the conference semifinals.

“I’ve seen the struggle,” Joseph said. “To be part of this team now, it’s a special moment.”

Joseph’s hope for the Raptors now? That a 50-win season is only the beginning.

jmcdonald@

express-news.net