The Toronto Raptors bench will be the key to winning the series

The Toronto Raptors bench will be the key to winning the series by William Ricks

Down 0-2 in the series, it would’ve been easy for the Toronto Raptors to fold. Instead, they rallied behind both new and old faces to tie the series up in Games 3 and 4.

The final track of Kanye West’s 2004 album The College Dropout is titled “Last Call.” In that song, West has two lines that seem representative of what Toronto Raptors team president Masai Ujiri did this year to reconstruct his team:

I ain’t play the hand I was dealt, I changed my cards / I prayed to the skies and I changed my stars

Last summer, Ujiri had finally seen enough. Three straight embarrassments at the hands of LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers was too many. (And make no mistake, the 2016 conference finals were still somewhat humiliating, despite the Raptors winning two games. Toronto got outscored by more than 28 points per game in its four losses.)

Ujiri changed his cards. He traded DeMar DeRozan, the star he inherited from Bryan Colangelo’s regime and brought in Kawhi Leonard to push the Raptors over the hump. He later acquired Marc Gasol at the deadline, dealing away Jonas Valanciunas – one of the final Colangelo holdovers. The only remaining Raptor not brought in by Ujiri is Kyle Lowry.

After all of Ujiri’s moves, the Raptors found themselves in a similar situation. Again.

Tuesday night, they played yet another must-win Game 4, trailing the series 2-1. Lose, and they’d be heading back to Milwaukee down 3-1 for an elimination game, in an arena where the Bucks were 33-8 in the regular season and 6-1 in the playoffs.

Last year, the Raptors might’ve folded. In May 2018, it only took one devastating loss against Cleveland to break their spirit and open the door for a sweep. Just like last season, these Raptors outplayed their opponents for most of Game 1 but blew it down the stretch. And just like last season, Toronto lost Game 2 in a blowout.

Kawhi Leonard owned Game 3

After the Bucks took a commanding 2-0 series lead, it would’ve been easy for these Raptors to give up. NBA teams leading 2-0 go on to win the series more than 94-percent of the time. But Leonard, the youngest NBA Finals MVP other than Magic Johnson, wouldn’t let it happen. He’s the ace in Ujiri’s deck.

Despite hurting his leg in the first quarter, Leonard played a remarkable 52 minutes in Game 3, a double-overtime thriller. He made 12 of his 13 free throws to finish with 36 points. Leonard came up with a crucial steal and offensive rebound in the second overtime, and he somehow did it all while often hobbling up and down the court.

That’s not to shortchange Pascal Siakam, who’s often struggled offensively against Giannis Antetokounmpo but had an efficient 25 points and 11 rebounds in Game 3. The same goes for Gasol, who was phenomenal, and Norman Powell, who excelled off the bench before fouling out.

But Game 3 belonged to Leonard, as has been the case for much of these playoffs. He’s the star for whom Raptors fans have “prayed to the skies” for so many years.

Team effort in Game 4

Game 4, however, was quite the opposite. Leonard struggled, scoring 19 points in just 34 minutes, his second-lowest point total of the playoffs.

With Leonard struggling, everyone else stepped up. It was a redemption story for teams of Raptors past.

Powell, a rookie saviour for the Raptors in their first series win of this era back in 2016, has had an up-and-down few years.

Tuesday night, Powell fired up 18 shot attempts – his highest total of the last two years, regular season or playoffs. Though he made just six of those shots, Powell kept the defense honest and knocked down a playoff career-high four three-pointers, taking what Milwaukee gave him.

Serge Ibaka, a mid-season addition who was thought to be an answer against Cleveland in 2017, was the poster boy of that year’s humiliation when James spun the ball in front of his face before making a three-pointer.

That moment felt worlds away during Game 4, when Ibaka played with ferocity, grabbing a game-high 13 rebounds and scoring 17 points.

Fred VanVleet, so reliable in the regular season that he earned the nickname “Steady Freddy,” played hurt during last year’s playoffs and was ineffective. He’d been struggling again, scoring just 24 total points in the team’s 10 playoff games against the 76ers and Bucks.

VanVleet finally started hitting open shots in Game 4, as he finished with 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting and added six assists.

Even as the three reserves combined for 48 points, the starters didn’t fade to the background. Siakam didn’t score much but chipped in with hustle plays. Leonard battled through injury, never complaining or making excuses, surely inspiring his teammates. And Gasol had his second straight game of 16+ points and seven assists, a terrific two-way performance.

The brilliance of Kyle Lowry

And of course, there was Lowry. The alleged playoff choker. The All-Star who scored 0 points in the first game of these playoffs. The one who “struggles with his shot in the postseason” but has a far better effective field goal percentage (51.5-percent) over the past four playoffs than fellow All-Star point guards Damian Lillard (47.8-percent) and Russell Westbrook (43.9-percent).

Lowry doesn’t need to score to be effective. He leads all players in the 2019 playoffs in loose balls recovered, easily leads in charges drawn, and is fifth in deflections. Lowry has become a five-time All-Star, one of the most impactful players in the league over the last half-decade, without having standout box score stats.

But when Lowry does choose to be aggressive offensively, especially early in games, it usually means death for the opposing team. That’s why it hurt so much for the Raptors to lose Game 1 of this series when Lowry torched the Bucks for 30 points on 7-of-9 threes.

But it’s also why the Raptors dominated Game 4. To go with his five rebounds and six assists, Lowry scored 25 points on 6-of-11 shooting, 10-of-10 free throws, and 3-of-7 threes – an incredible 81.2-percent true shooting. He scored 12 points in the game’s first five minutes, setting the tone for the rest of the night.

Kyle Lowry has seen the Raptors go down in every way possible: A heart-breaking Game 7 at the buzzer, humiliating sweeps, a six-game series where it felt like the Raptors never stood a chance.

In Game 3, Lowry was forced to watch the final 16 minutes from the sidelines after fouling out. He saw Leonard save Toronto’s season in double-overtime. In Game 4, Lowry ensured that it wouldn’t need any more saving.

The story of this Raptors team hasn’t been fully written yet. The Bucks still have homecourt and are still favoured to win the series. But this isn’t 2016. Even if they’re eliminated, the Raptors won’t walk off the court to a 26-point loss, feeling like they never stood a chance. No matter what happens over the next week, Toronto will have had a successful season.

Ujiri changed most of the cards he inherited, and rightfully so. It turns out, the one card that he kept – Kyle Lowry – just needed to be part of a better hand.