Toronto Raptors: 3 pivotal matchups in return-to-play schedule
By Alex Taylor
Raptors vs. Celtics: Friday Aug. 7, 9:00 pm ET
The Raptors play a number of teams that are trailing them in the standings – the Miami Heat, Philadelphia 76ers and Orlando Magic. However, the Celtics are the only team with a realistic chance of catching them and changing the seeding, and even that isn’t very “realistic”.
The Raptors and Celtics ended play with the same amount of games completed, making the winning percentage calculation really easy. Boston needs to finish their eight-game schedule with four more wins than the Raptors to leap-frog them for the second seed. If the Raptors go 3-5, the Celtics would have to go 7-1, etc.
That’s not very likely. If social media is to be believed however, it seems to be a goal the Celtics have made for themselves, and that makes this matchup an intriguing one.
It’s game #4 on the Raptors’ schedule, which means if they start off strong in Orlando, they could be officially putting the Celtics dreams of the two seed to bed with a win. It also is a good preview of what is probably going to be a second-round matchup, when No. 2 plays No. 3.
Add in the fact that by game four, the Raptors should be running smoothly. As such, this game becomes must-watch TV.