Toronto Raptors: 9 Revelations from Game 1 win over Wizards
By Demar Grant
The Toronto Raptors put their tough history in Game 1 aside, as they went on to beat the Washington Wizards 114-106 and take a 1-0 series lead.
Playoffs? Playoffs? Are you kidding me? I was just hoping the Toronto Raptors win game one. Game 1 win is the most infamous game in franchise history for the obvious reason that they can’t win one, but they’re also a small sample.
Still, there were things we’ve never seen or even considered before they happened in Game 1, that’ll impact the entire series that I never considered before. These are the revelations.
I’ll be doing one of these for each Raptors’ playoff game so strap in, it’s gonna be fun. Ideally, this would be titled six Raptors revelations to create that Drake-Toronto-Raptors connection. But I’ve turned the 6 upside down into a 9 now.
1. It’s Actually Possible for the Raptors to win Game 1 of a Series
Can you believe it? They finally broke the curse of 17 years without winning Game 1 in a seven-game series. Heading into Saturday night’s game, the nervousness in the air was palpable.
This is a different team; their offensive style is different, their bench is different (read: better), the starters are better, the coach is better and even the uniforms are better. But the spectre of John Wall loomed.
The last time the Raptors and Washington Wizards met in the playoffs, it was 2015, When the likes of Greg Stiemsma, Amir Johnson, Tyler Hansbrough, Landry Fields and Bruno Caboclo were lining the bench. Not exactly Murderer’s Row coming off the pine. Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan were in peak isolation mode, with the team playing at the second-slowest pace in the league and they simply got jumped by the Washington Almost Bullets in a 4-0 sweep.
The event was scarring enough for analysts that some flinched and picked the Wizards to win the series this year. Despite all the memes and jokes, the Game 1 curse (if it’s more than 10 years it’s a curse) was something mentioned on every platform that covered the Raptors.
Everyone knew about it and with the Raptors being considered a contender this year, it felt like a litmus test for the rest of the playoffs. Lowry said that Game 1 was their Game 7 and they played like it. The Raps won convincingly 114 -106; this may be a sweep and a lot of pre-playoffs predictions are looking suspect.