There are all kinds of Eastern rivals that the Toronto Raptors have never faced in the playoffs, but they sure seem to be drawn to the Nets franchise.
For the third time, Toronto and the Nets will square off in the first round of the NBA playoffs. That was assured when Brooklyn upset the Los Angeles Clippers 129-120 on Sunday to clinch seventh place on the same day the Raptors locked in the No. 2 slot behind Milwaukee.
In normal times, this would be an interesting battle instead of the one-sided series it projects to be. With a healthy Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, the Nets are one of the best offensive teams in the league. But they aren’t playing, and neither are DeAndre Jordan, Spencer Dinwiddie or Taurean Prince, who all didn’t report to Orlando — Jordan, Dinwiddie, Prince didn’t come to Orlando after contracting COVID-19.
Brooklyn still has dangerous players in Caris LeVert and Joe Harris and intriguing young centre Jarrett Allen, but their depth has been annihilated.
These franchises squared off back in 1995 in the first Raptors game ever played and went on to meet in a pair of memorable post-season series. Toronto returned to the playoffs for the first time after four straight absences in 2006-07, but lost to Vince Carter and the then New Jersey Nets in six games despite having homecourt advantage.
More recently, the new Brooklyn Nets took on favoured Toronto in 2013-14 after the Raptors had missed the playoffs for a franchise-record five straight seasons.
Brooklyn had an experienced crew of aging veterans like Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Deron Williams and those “dinosaurs” beat the NBA’s dinosaurs in seven games, rallying to take the final two contests after Toronto had gone up 3-2. Pierce blocked a Kyle Lowry layup attempt in the dying seconds of Game 7 at a raucous Air Canada Centre.
It was the start of an eventual rise to NBA champions for the Raptors organization, while Brooklyn has mostly floundered since, but stunned by landing Durant and Irving last summer.
@WolstatSun
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