As the excitement for the upcoming NBA season exponentially grows, a preview of the Raptors’ most intriguing matchup seems appropriate.
Just as the Raptors are set to emerge as an elite team in the Eastern conference, rival teams put themselves in position to surmount them. The high level of off-season activity has allowed teams to reinforce, or in some cases, entirely revamp their rosters. Essentially, what this means for Toronto is that improved teams like Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Indiana and New York will greatly increase the degree of competition. The Raptors have stayed true to their team, but with new opponents, comes new rivalries.
Looking back at the 2015-2016 season, the Raptors arguably had one main competitor worthy of the status of rival: The Cleveland Cavaliers. The Raptors were trailing two games behind the Cavaliers for what seemed like the entire season. Any team starring LeBron James is bound to secure the number one seed; but the number two seed will most likely be up for grabs. Toronto will be pursuing Cleveland once again but this time around they will have company: the Boston Celtics.
While the Raptors have dominated in this series for the past few years, the competition between the two Atlantic Division clubs has only intensified since. Last season, this series ended 3-1 in the Raptors’ favor. Next season, however, don’t be surprised in an even series. Boston is considered among the winners of the off-season, given their number of quality acquisitions. Drafting third overall pick Jaylen Brown, then signing all-star forward Al Horford as well as a capable role player in Gerald Green is undoubtedly a reward for the fierce Celtics. All they were missing was star power, and now they got it with Al Horford.
While Celtics forward Jae Crowder claims “Toronto is not a team they’re worried about” (http://www.thescore.com/news/1063160), they certainly won’t hold back throughout their regular season meetings. In order to further examine this rivalry, a preview of the projected starting line-ups and the individual match-up between team leaders is ideal.
In a rivalry, the leaders of both teams more often than not share some sort of resemblance. Kyle Lowry and Isaiah Thomas both strive to become the best point-guard of the East; chasing the Cleveland Cavaliers looking to eclipse them. The two all-stars are fairly similar when comparing them on paper; their play style, however, is not as alike. Both guards have similar averages in PPG, Ast, TRb, FG% and 3Pt-FG%; overall, Lowry is slightly more rounded. After all, it is really a matter of who’s night it is. Scoring between 20 – 25 has become the expectation for Isaiah Thomas; he ultimately averaged 22.3 points in their four-game series.
Meanwhile, Lowry was outscored by Thomas in the first two games but took the victories regardless. In time, he dropped an explosion of a performance in their third meeting by providing 32 points to the win. Coach Casey chose to sit Lowry during their fourth meeting with Boston for rest; this was the Raptors’ only loss at the hands of the Celtics with Thomas leading all scorers with 23 points. Altogether, Lowry has the upper hand due to his ability to impact the face of a game in greater ways.
At present, we can only speculate who will conquer this matchup as we await the start of the regular season. In sum, the Raptors and the Celtics should pursue Cleveland with greater force than any other team in the East. They will meet four times and will clash on all occasions; hopefully this is the beginning of an important rivalry.