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TORONTO – Twenty-one would be a very interesting figure for the Toronto Raptors. Before you get it, however, they will have to have one.
And we would be beyond cool. Out of the cards, historical, potentially transformative and largely indescribable.
Twenty-one: This is the number of teams in the history of the NBA playoffs who will have beaten a 0-2 start to win the best-of-seven series, if the Raptors manage to close the match against the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference Finals. Whether in Game 6 on Saturday night at Scotiabank Arena or Match 7 in Milwaukee on Monday, Toronto would face wild odds – this is the 289th series from which the same team wins the first two games . Probability of 7% (20 out of 288).
A: That's all that remains between the Raptors and the first appearance of the NBA Final in the history of the franchise in Toronto. An additional victory in the next three days would validate the risks and surprises of this 2018-1919 season for the Raptors, while exorcising almost a quarter of a century of demons.
A small victory and Toronto will finally break through, ending a brilliant season of six years of promising regular seasons and heartbreaking postures. Faced with so much uncertainty, they have earned their best shot for a championship title, even if you have to go through the powerful Golden State Warriors.
When Raptor President Masai Ujiri traded for star striker Kawhi Leonard, he was not only playing for Leonard to recover from the right quadriceps injury that upset his 2017-18 season. He thought that Leonard's exchange with DeMar DeRozan, the former All-Star star, could push Toronto to find where they are. And he hoped that Leonard, a profitable player able to leave this summer in an autonomous agency, would benefit from all the necessary experience to allow Ujiri to pay him $ 220 million over five seasons.
It is impossible to know where things are on this last front, because of Leonard's inscrutability and a decision to be made in six weeks. But the Raptors have never been so far, so there is an opportunity to savor here, with others potentially coming.
"It would be a very, very long summer to think of what could have been or what you could have done," said goalkeeper Fred VanVleet, describing things with a bad eye after raining 7 of 9 points to 3 on Milwaukee in the 105-99 victory of match 5. "So we just have to go and have no regrets. … A win away from the final seems pretty good. "
It seems a little easier, perhaps, than it really will be. The Raptors are home for the sixth game and the Scotiabank crowd, already at the highest level, will be able to let it rip without fear – anyway, immediate fear – of failure.
But Milwaukee will be desperate. Giannis Antetokounmpo promised that his team would not "withdraw". And the Bucks have no interest in a year ahead, believing the whole season that they have been good enough to win the championship.
They would not be human if they were not shaken by the three consecutive defeats that Toronto inflicted on them. The Raptors managed to cash in and partially smother Antetokounmpo, while pulling enough to disturb Milwaukee's three-pointers in repeated misses.
The Bucks defense was sounded and stung like a steak at the cut. They again resorted to unusual changes in the fifth match, but had the essence of their success inside the bow. Towards the end of the crucial defeat, they were beaten for five offensive rebounds, while seizing two or three could have tipped the way out.
"It's winning or losing," coach Mike Budenholzer said during a conference call with reporters. "When we win, there are things that [still] are disturbing and troubling ones you need to work on and improve on. I think there are just enough goods for which there are some rebounds that stand out.
"Can we do a little better work in some of our activities in certain situations. Offensively, I think sometimes our spacing can be better and our ball movement be better? But I would say that it's like a lot of games. We did not succeed.
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