Chapter 11 A Brilliant Tomorrow

In 2014, at the end of the seventh game between the Raptors and the Nets in the first round of the NBA East, Terrence Ross made a great contribution, he interrupted Livingston's pass in the air, and before his feet landed, he smashed the ball on Pierce's legs, at this time there were 5.8 seconds left before the end of the game, which was enough time for a complete offense, although the Raptors were one point behind, but they had the ball in their hands and had the chance to kill, at the critical moment, who would be the hero!

Nets head coach Jason Kidd standing on the sidelines had an incredible look on his face, three minutes ago we were leading by almost 10 points, how can we play like this now, what the hell is going on?

The Raptors paused to set up tactics, and the fans in the stadium stood up to cheer for the Raptors, and it is no exaggeration to say that this round of the series has greatly increased the status of the Raptors in the NBA, and at the same time, it has also gained many die-hard fans of the team!

Vasquiz made a free throw to Lowry at the top of the arc, who took the ball for a short time, and then did not hesitate to break through from the right side of Delon, who was defending him! Garnett, Pierce, and Joe Johnson quickly surrounded Lowry, who first passed with a Wade's signature ball, passed Delon and then was slapped out with one hand by Pierce who jumped up at the moment when he took the ball and was ready to throw a small throw! Slow motion shows that this is a perfect cap! This round of the series, in the end, ended with a whistle-blowing block from Paul Pearce!

Pierce only had 10 points and 4 rebounds in the game, but the last block made him a hero, Joe Johnson scored 26 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists, Deron scored 13 points, Livingston scored 10 points, Marcus Thornton scored 17 points, Lowry scored a team-high 28 points and 7 rebounds, Amir Johnson scored 20 points and 10 rebounds, DeRozan had 18 points and 6 assists, Terrence Rose scored 11 points, Patterson scored 16 points on 5-of-5 shooting, Valanciunas had just three points and five rebounds in the game and was dropped in the fourth quarter.

Although the Raptors ended in this round of the series, there is no doubt that they have achieved success this season, both the fans and the status of the team have been greatly improved in the NBA, and the Raptors have their own dual core, that is, DeRozan and Lowry, the former averaged 23.9 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game in this round of the series, and the latter averaged 21.1 points, 4.7 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game.

Next season, the Raptors will add a strong super sixth man, Louis Williams, at the cost of the Raptors sending John Salmons to the Hawks, Louis Williams has extremely strong offensive skills, is an enhanced version of Nick Young, and he is different from Nick Young's convulsive play, Williams' contribution every night is very stable, last season because of injuries caused the whole season to play unsatisfactory, and was immediately cleared out of the team by the Hawks, But Louis Williams, who has recovered from an old injury in the new season, has proven himself again in Toronto, playing in 80 games throughout the season, all off the bench, and averaging 15.5 points per game! This season's outstanding performance also earned Williams the Super Sixth Man trophy this season!

Team leader DeRozan has become one of the league's top scorers this season. Averaging 20.1 points, 4.6 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game, Lowry is also among the ranks of first-line point guards, averaging 17.8 points, 4.7 rebounds and 6.8 assists per game, Valanciunas has become the team's interior pillar, averaging 12.0 points, 8.7 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game, Terrence Rose, Vasquith, Patterson, James Johnson, Tyler Hansbrough have also played very well this season! In the end, this season's Raptors won 49-33, ranked fourth in the East, and reached the playoffs for two consecutive years!

The Raptors faced the Washington Wizards in the first round of the playoffs, who also have twin stars, their twin star is John Wall, Brad Beal, while other players such as Nene Hilario, Marchin Gortat, Kevin Seraphim, Drew Gooden, Ramon Sessions, Otto Porter and other players are also good, plus there is also an old fritter, Paul Pierce who blocked the Raptors last year.

In the first game of the first round, the shooting percentage of both teams was not high, and the score was also very anxious, and in the crucial fourth quarter, Vasquith and Louis Williams made a great contribution, and the two scored 8 points each in the crucial fourth quarter, allowing the Raptors, who were a whole game behind, to catch up with the Wizards, especially Vasquith, who hit a magical three-pointer in the last 26 seconds of the game to tie the score, and as Wall missed, the game went into overtime!

At the beginning of overtime, Pierce hit a key three-pointer to lead the team to play momentum, and then Nene dunked, Porter made a layup and Wall also hit a shot, and the Raptors, because Lowry was fouled with 2 minutes and 30 seconds left in the fourth quarter, causing the Raptors' offense to be chaotic in overtime, until the end of overtime with 30 seconds left, DeRozan scored 2 points, and finally the Raptors lost the first game 86-93, Amir Johnson scored a team-high 18 points and 8 rebounds, DeRozan scored 15 points, 11 rebounds and 6 assists on 6-of-20 shooting, Patterson, Vasquith and Louis Williams all scored 10 points, Lowry was limited by Wall, he hit only 2 of 10 shots and scored 7 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 turnovers, the reason why the word "limit" is used, not "exploded" is because Wall played a scumbag in this game, scoring 10 points and 8 assists in only 5 of 18 shots, which is considered to be a match with Lowry, Veteran Pierce was once again a nightmare for the Raptors, and he played extremely well in this game, scoring 20 points and four rebounds on 7-of-10 shooting.

In the second game, the Raptors lost another game 106:117, both home courts were lost, and the game changed the game in the second quarter, Wizards Brad Beal was possessed by God in this quarter, and scored 16 points in 7 of 9 shots in a single quarter, leading the Wizards to play a wave of 34:18 scoring**, although the Raptors fought back under the leadership of Louis Williams in the fourth quarter, but they had no choice but not enough time, and finally swallowed the bitter fruit of defeat, Beal scored 28 points in this game, and Wall can be regarded as beating Lowry in this game, He scored 26 points and 17 assists on 8-of-16 shooting, but Lowry only scored 6 points and 4 assists on 3-of-10 shooting, Porter did not play well in the last game, and he played a value in this game, scoring 15 points and 9 rebounds on 6-of-8 shooting, on the other hand, the Raptors, DeRozan played a decent 20 points and 7 assists, Valanciunas scored 15 points and 10 rebounds, Super Six Williams scored 20 points, and Patterson scored 15 points.

The first two games Raptors fell behind 0:2, the series wanted to win, and the third game had to be won, as a result, the Raptors again, again, lost again, 99:106, DeRozan played well, this game hit 32 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists, the main reason for the failure was Lowry again, again, again, was blown up by Wall, only scored 15 points and 7 rebounds on 5-of-22 shooting, and Wall scored 19 points and sent 15 assists, although the shooting rate of 5-of-15 was not too good, but compared to Lowry, That's a lot better......

The fourth game is also the last game between the two sides, the Wizards team in this game is like a rainbow, the first quarter played the Raptors a 36:22, the third quarter was beaten again: 36:20 finally the Raptors 94:125 defeated the Wizards, the Wizards scored seven double-doubles, the Raptors Lowry finally played normally, 15 shots 8 of 21 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists but there were 6 turnovers, the Raptors 0:4 ended the season's journey.

In fact, before the start of this round of the series, it was predicted to play seven games, in terms of strength, the Raptors and the Wizards are on par, the Twin Stars against the Twin Stars, and each team also has a very practical center Valanciunas and Gortat, but why were the Raptors swept by the Wizards and eliminated in such an almost abusive way? The reason is in Lowry, I don't know if he was stupid by Pierce's hat last season, or he was weak when he saw Wall's own legs, anyway, Lowry only averaged 12.3 points, 4.8 assists per game and a team-high 3.0 turnovers in four games, shooting 31.6% from the field and 21.7% from three-point range. Lowry and Louis Williams are the two people who average the most three-pointers per game on the team, one is 5.8 and the other is 5.3, but their shooting percentages are miserable 21.7% and 19.0%, and the team's highest three-point shooting percentage is Patrick Patterson, but you can't expect an interior player with a rebounding mission to shoot three-pointers all the time, and the Raptors don't have a veteran who can stand up and speak up in the face of the team's adversity or at critical moments, on the other hand, the Wizards, The Twin Stars played in the middle of the pack, the scoring remained good but the shooting rate decreased slightly, the reason why the Wizards were able to win was completely because of the role players, Gortat averaged 17.3 points and 10.0 rebounds per game, and the shooting rate was as high as 74.4%, Uncle Pi came to see the Raptors, averaging 15.5 points per game, shooting rate of 57.6%, three-point shooting rate of 58.3%! In addition, Porter, Gooden and Nene all played well, so it is not surprising that the Raptors were swept by the Wizards.

In the 2015-2016 season, the Raptors, who wanted to achieve results, made a big deal and signed Demarley Carroll, a small forward who originally played for the Hawks, worth $58.07 million in 4 years, Carroll was impressed by James in the playoffs last year, Carroll was hit by an injury in the new season, because of surgery on his right knee, which caused him to be almost reimbursed in the regular season, and he only returned in the playoffs, July 9, 2015, The Raptors signed veteran Luis Scola with a one-year contract worth $3 million, and Scola became the team's starting power forward, averaging 8.7 points and 4.7 rebounds per game, and also developed a three-point skill package this season, averaging 2.1 shots per game and shooting as high as 40.4%, the Raptors handed Cory Joseph a four-year contract worth $30 million the day after signing Scola, and Joseph immediately became an important force on the Raptors' bench. He averaged 8.5 points per game. Eight days later, the Raptors signed another player, this time to a two-year, $6 million contract, to Bismarck Biyombo. At the same time, they also kept rookie Norman Powell, who was traded by the Bucks!

After a series of reinforcements, the Raptors have greatly increased their strength, and once beat the Cavaliers to become the top of the East in the new season, which can be called the biggest dark horse of the season, and finally the Raptors under the leadership of Dwayne Casey ranked second in the East with a team record record of 56 wins and 26 losses, and faced the Indiana Pacers in the first round!

The Raptors and the Pacers fought hard for seven games, and finally advanced 4:3, the Pacers' number one superstar Paul George gave the Raptors great pressure, he averaged 27.3 points, 7.6 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game, and the Raptors' two-gun play was not satisfactory, although DeRozan averaged 17.9 points per game while shooting only 31.9%, Kevin Lowry averaged only 13.9 points per game, and the shooting rate was as low as 31.6%, but the biggest difference between this Raptors team last year was the role players, Cory Joseph, Biyombo and Valanciunas all played very well and became the most advantageous weapon for the Raptors to eliminate the Pacers!

In the second round, the Raptors and the Heat fought seven more difficult games to advance, and Wade showed his true colors as a superstar. averaged 23.9 points per game, Dragic first suppressed and then Yang also had a good performance, Lowry's excellent play became the main reason why the Raptors were able to eliminate the Heat, Lowry swept the sluggish state in the first round, facing his former comrade-in-arms Dragic, Lowry was able to score 23.4 points, 5.4 rebounds and 5.9 assists per game, although DeRozan's shooting rate was still unsatisfactory, but he also had 22.1 points in his account, Valanciunas was injured in this series, but he was still able to average 18.3 points and 12.7 rebounds per game, which broke the interior that the Heat is proud of, Carroll, Terrence Rossbiombo have a good performance!

The Raptors made history in reaching the Eastern Conference Finals, this is the first time they stepped on the floor of the Eastern Conference finals, but unfortunately, they faced the powerful Cleveland Cavaliers, relying on DeRozan, Lowry and Boyongbo's strong play, the Raptors won 2 games, but in the end, the huge gap in strength still made the Raptors stop in the Eastern Finals, although their journey this season is over, but there is no doubt that this season's Raptors want to be successful, they have made history, although they are still glorious!

Aside from the recruitment, the Raptors in the new season are mainly facing a problem, that is, the renewal of DeRozan and Biyombo, DeRozan is a star cultivated by the Raptors themselves, and if he can renew his contract, of course, he will do his best to keep the two-time All-Star, but the question is whether DeRozan is worth the top salary, DeRozan and Harden met when they were ten years old, and became friends, and the two of them have been fighting all the way, but now Harden is already a hot superstar in the league, and DeRozan is still struggling with the problem of offensive efficiency, Whether he is worth it for the Raptors to offer him a maximum salary, this is a question, and there is Biyombo, who is basically stereotyped in his skills, that is, a rebounding coolie, he played well in the playoffs, but it was thanks to Valanciunas' injury, so he gave Biyombo a chance, it is rumored that there will be a team to give Biyombo a contract with an annual salary of about $15 million, so that if the Raptors match, they will be burdened with huge salary pressure, if they don't match, they will lose this rebounding warrior in vain, It's a headache for the Raptors.

Well, the team history of the Raptors is simply here, all in all, it is still the same sentence, because of the geographical problem, my mother does not love my uncle and uncle, the team has been established for so many years, and there has never been a superstar willing to come to Toronto, but the Raptors have relied on high-quality drafts and the cultivation of role players to pull the team into the floor of the Eastern Conference Finals, and the reconstruction of people is also very tough, and there has never been a situation at the bottom of the East, which makes the Los Angeles Lakers and Philadelphia 76ers this season embarrassed?

Ming'er began to brag and boarded the Spurs