Raptors on the Brink of Playoff Disaster and Friday NBA Takeaways

The Toronto Raptors fell 101-83 in Game 6 on Friday, failing to eliminate the Indiana Pacers in panic-inducing fashion.

If you’ve ever jumped off a high dive into deep water and then realized early in the swim back up that you’re shorter on air and farther from the surface than you thought, you know how the Raptors feel. They believed for a moment that they were just inches from breaking through, from breaching and taking in a deep, badly needed breath.

But the air never came.

An 18-6 first-quarter lead—punctuated by frenetic action on defense, hustle plays all over the floor and a soaring DeMar DeRozan putback—made it seem like the Raps would run away with Game 6. Toronto was all but assured the cleansing inhalation it so desperately needed. Had that lead held up, giving the Raptors the first win in a seven-game series in franchise history, the pressure release would have been immense.

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Toronto gave away Games 6 and 7 in a first-round loss to the Brooklyn Nets two years ago, then completed a second-half collapse in horrid fashion by losing in a 4-0 first-round sweep against the Washington Wizards last season. The Raps haven’t won a postseason series since 2001.

Early in Friday’s contest, it seemed like all that stuff was about to become a distant memory. Yet even in the midst of that promising start, there was a sense of foreboding.

Here’s Eric Koreen of Sportsnet in Toronto:

Great start for the Raps. Just figuring out which Raptor is going to be 0.1 late to tie the game at the end, brb.

— Eric Koreen (@ekoreen) April 29, 2016

Indiana assured the Raptors would continue to be haunted by old ghosts, paring the lead down to just two points at the end of the first quarter and then taking the advantage for good with a blitz to close the half. Then, the Pacers pumped the lead up to 19 with a 12-0 run to start the fourth.

The Raptors will have to wait on that breath.

Game 7 will take place in Toronto on Sunday, and it’ll be a big one.

Winning it would give the franchise’s history of collapse a critical recent counterpoint. Winning it would mean avoiding the ignominy of following up the best regular season ever with a defeat to a No. 7 seed. Winning it would mean avoiding an indelible third strike on the postseason-choke ledger.

Toronto will have home-court advantage, which will help. And you’d have to think the stakes will inspire extra intensity.

Although, according to DeRozan, the Raptors intended to play with peak desperation Friday, per Ryan Wolstat of the Toronto Sun:

DeRozan this morning: “We gotta treat it like our backs are against the wall. We don’t want to go back home and play a Game 7.” Oops

— Ryan Wolstat (@WolstatSun) April 30, 2016

Oops indeed.

Additionally troubling: There are some serious reasons to suspect the Raptors will struggle in Sunday’s fateful Game 7.

DeRozan’s highlight dunk in the first quarter was an outlier. He shot just 3-of-13 from the field, was again swallowed whole by Paul George’s defensive wingspan and is shooting 32.1 …

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