Who Will finish top of the Eastern Conference
The NBA season has throwing up alot of surprises this season with the Toronto Raptors leading the way in the East to the complete blowup of the Cleveland Cavaliers team at the trade deadline to Kyrie Irving balling out in Boston, here we look at who is in the running for the Eastern Conference number 1 seed and who will be jockeying for seeding in the race for a playoff spot.
Toronto Raptors: 45-17 Record No 1 seed:
“You could make a case for a lot of teams being the best team, but the numbers say we are there.” These were the words from Raptors coach Dwane Casey recently when asked if his team was the best in the East so far this season. The numbers do back Toronto’s claim. After Sunday's night’s win over the Hornets, the Raptors are 45-17 — the best record in the East, and the third-best in the NBA. That puts them on pace to break the franchise record of 56 wins they set two years ago. More importantly, Toronto has the NBA’s fourth-best offense which is 111 points per 100 possessions and third-best defense in the NBA at 102.7 points per 100 possessions.
How impressive is this? The only other team in the top five in both categories? The defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors.
So why would Toronto be slightly reluctant to go all-in on his current team? One way to look at it is a chance to guard against the rapidly rising expectations for his squad. But there’s another reason that seems more likely, Toronto knows the true test of how good this Raptors team is and if it is the best team this franchise has ever assembled is going to come in April, May and June.
Regular season success isn’t foreign to the Toronto Raptors, who have exceeded 50 wins in each of the past two seasons. But in the postseason, the Raptors have struggled, needing every little ounce of their energy to escape from their first-round series and then continuing to struggle against Lebron and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Two years ago, Toronto made it to the Eastern Conference finals, but only after two nail biting seven-game series against the Indiana Pacers and Miami Heat which they deserved to win but could’ve gone either way. Then they were demolished by the Cleveland Cavaliers in arguably the most lopsided six-game series the sport has ever seen. Last year it took six games to dispatch a tough improving Milwaukee Bucks in Round 1, only to get swept by the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference semifinals due to injury to 4 time all star and leader Kyle Lowry.
So what’s different this year? The biggest change is in Toronto’s spreading the basketball approach. Last season, the Raptors were 22nd in the NBA in three pointers attempted per game and 29th among the league’s 30 teams in assist percentage. This year, they are fifth and tied for ninth, respectively.
Over the years under team President Masai Ujiri, the Raptors have steadily rounded out their roster with players the team has drafted and developed. This season, several of them have become major contributors. Rookie OG Anunoby has stepped into the starting lineup and given the Raptors the big, physical presence on the wings they’ve been searching for. Other former draft picks have developed into reliable options at point guard Fred VanVleet, power forward Pascal Siakam and center Jakob Poeltl, while this summer’s main offseason acquisition, swingman C.J. Miles, has helped Toronto’s efforts to become a better three-point shooting team.
Can the Raptors continue to play this way during the playoffs? That remains to be seen, but to do so, Lowry and DeRozan will have to continue to believe that everyone needs to touch the ball as the game winds down, instead of reverting back to the isolation play that they’ve so often relied on in the past. But this season...... It seems that this Raptors squad believe they can stop Lebrons Cleveland and Kyries Boston to make it to the NBA Finals.
A Dream? Might just become a reality.....