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Toronto Raptors come full circle with first-round series against Brooklyn Nets – TSN

Published

4 years ago

August 14, 2020

TORONTO – There were 22.5 seconds left on the clock as Deron Williams stepped to the free- throw line in Game 7 of the thrilling opening-round playoff series between the Brooklyn Nets and Toronto Raptors back in 2014.

Scotiabank Arena – formerly known as the Air Canada Centre – had already seen its share of special moments, and it’s certainly been the site of a few since then, but those who were in the building that day will tell you they’ve never seen or heard it like that.

With a two-point lead and a chance to ice the game and the series for Brooklyn, Williams stared into a seemingly endless sea of red and white – more than 20,000 Raptors fans standing, screaming and stomping, desperately trying to will the ball out of the basket.

The foundation shook and the noise was deafening. When Williams missed the first shot, the building erupted.

That’s just one of the lasting images from an iconic and franchise-altering few weeks. Masai Ujiri’s “F— Brooklyn” in Jurassic Park ahead of Game 1 and the subsequent fine from the NBA, Dwane Casey riding the subway on the way to the arena, and Terrence Ross’ Game 7 steal. Then there was the way it ended – Kyle Lowry, who’s buzzer-beating floater had just been blocked by Paul Pierce, laying under the basket while his friend and teammate DeMar DeRozan consoled him.

Brooklyn had won the battle, but Toronto won the war.

The Nets, who were built to compete for championships, lost in the second round that year. They haven’t won a playoff series – or more than 42 games in a season – since.

The Raptors have won eight postseason series, including an NBA title. They’ve qualified for the playoffs in each of the past seven years, and after failing to win 50 games during the first two decades of their existence, they’ve reached that plateau five seasons in a row – the longest active streak in the league.

Their remarkable and unexpected mid-season turnaround in 2013-14 sparked the most successful run in franchise history, and the “We the North” era was born in that series with Brooklyn – literally in the case of the team’s popular marketing campaign and rallying cry, which was launched a few days before Game 1.

“It was thrilling at that time for the Raptors to even be in that position,” said Nick Nurse, who was in his first season as an assistant with Toronto that year. “I don’t think anybody saw it coming. And the excitement. Man, was it something. The roar of the crowd in Game 1 was amazing for our home fans and fan base. To be there for the first year, that was my first year there, it was something cool, for sure.”

Six years later, the Raptors have come full circle as they prepare to open the postseason against a familiar – and fitting – first-round opponent: the Nets. Both teams look and feel a lot different this time.

For Toronto, it hasn’t exactly been a linear rise. There have been setbacks and casualties along the way. They were swept out of the playoffs three times in four years. Casey was let go. DeRozan was traded. But even as the personnel changed, their on- and off-court identity mostly remained the same, and it manifested itself in that first series against Brooklyn.

Everything seemed new and exciting back then – for the players, the team and its fans. It’s why there was such a buzz in the building and around the city for a first-round series.

The organization hadn’t made the playoffs in six years, and didn’t expect to that season. Three of the starters were making their postseason debuts, while the other two came in with just 24 games of playoff experience under their belts. The Nets’ starters – Williams, Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Joe Johnson and Shaun Livingston – had 447.

The Raptors were actually the higher seed, but given their youth and Brooklyn’s championship pedigree, few picked them to win. That’s when Toronto truly embraced the idea of being the plucky underdogs. We the North. It fit the makeup of the team and resonated with the city and the fans.

Even in defeat, the experience of gutting out a hard-fought seven-game series against a tough veteran opponent helped prepare them for what they would become.

“[It meant] everything,” Lowry said of that 2014 series. He’s the only current Raptors player that appeared in it.

“It motivated me to great, to be better, to understand the situations that I want to be in and how to be successful in them.”

Lowry was 27 at the time. He was still learning what it meant to be a leader and only starting to scratch the surface of what he would blossom into as a player. He hadn’t made his first all-star team yet.

Now, he’s a six-time all-star, an Olympic gold medallist, an NBA champion and arguably the greatest Raptor ever. A lot has changed in six years, but with a game or a series on the line, they still want the ball in the hands of No. 7.

The roles are reversed for the rematch. The Raptors’ starters have appeared in 252 career playoff contests, and all five of them own a championship ring. The active roster has 493 games of playoff experience. Brooklyn’s has 149 games – 74 belonging to Jamal Crawford, who might not even play – and the Nets starters only have 51. They’re the kids. They’re the plucky underdogs with something to prove but nothing to lose.

This is the matchup that most teams wanted entering the restart. The Nets came to Disney without six rotation players. Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving won’t return from their injuries until next season, while Spencer Dinwiddie, Wilson Chandler, DeAndre Jordan and Taurean Prince all opted out. They filled their roster with G League standouts, unclaimed veterans and whomever else they could find on short notice, so most people wrote them off.

But they may be a tougher out than people thought. Outside of the undefeated Phoenix Suns, Brooklyn has been the biggest surprise of the bubble, going 5-3 with wins over the Bucks and Clippers. On Thursday, they nearly ended Portland’s season, despite having nothing tangible on the line.

They remind you a lot of those 2013-14 Raptors that nobody saw coming. They play extremely hard. Without an established the star on the floor – although Caris LeVert is certainly blossoming into one – they share the ball and play together. If anybody should know how dangerous the plucky underdogs could be, it’s Toronto.

“I think they’re obviously one of the big surprises of the restart,” Nurse said. “LeVert’s outstanding. They’re really playing with a lot of confidence. They’re playing fast, Coach [Jacque] Vaughn has obviously got ’em dialled in, and I think there’s a lot of opportunity there for some guys that are pretty good players.

“You’ve got an up and coming guy in LeVert that’s a super, super scorer and player. You’ve got [some] veteran players around them, Garrett Temple and even Jamal Crawford, in their locker room. Even though he hasn’t played much, it’s still nice to have some vets around the team. They’ve got a lot of guys who are playing with a lot of energy and a lot of confidence right now. They certainly earned and deserve this playoff berth and we will respect them, for sure. We will have to prepare and play really well to beat them.”

It’s not just the teams that have changed in six years, so have the expectations. The Raptors aren’t just happy to be there anymore, and merely getting past Brooklyn is no longer good enough. The goal will be to advance in four or five games – they’ve been on the losing side of four series sweeps in franchise history, but never on the winning side.

The Nets won’t go down without a fight, they’ve made that clear, and that’s a good thing – the Raptors need and probably want to be pushed. It’s not an easy matchup but it’s a more favourable one than fifth-place Indiana (who will face Miami) or sixth-place Philadelphia (who will face Boston) would have been.

With the Celtics – Toronto’s likely second-round opponent – going toe-to-toe with the talented, albeit depleted 76ers in a series that could conceivably go the distance, the hope is that the Raptors can take advantage of their matchup and have a few extra days to prepare for what comes next.

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NHL roundup: Hurricanes beat Flyers 6-4 for seventh straight win

Published

23 hours ago

November 6, 2024

Anne Joseph

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Martin Necas scored a go-ahead goal with 29 seconds left and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Philadelphia Flyers 6-4 on Tuesday night.

It was the seventh straight win for the Hurricanes, who also got goals from Jack Roslovic, Jordan Martinook, Eric Robinson and Jackson Blake. Seth Jarvis added an empty-net goal in the final seconds.

Necas typically saves his game-winners for overtime, with nine in his career, but he was able to take care of business in regulation with his team-best seventh goal of the season.

Travis Konecny scored two goals and had two assists for the Flyers. Morgan Frost and Owen Tippett also scored for Philadelphia.

Aleksei Kolosov made 28 saves for the Flyers, who trailed 2-1, 3-1 and 4-3 but kept coming back. Carolina’s Pyotr Kochetkov struggled in net allowing four goals on just 16 shots.

Elsewhere in the NHL on Tuesday:

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SABRES 5 SENATORS 1

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Bowen Byram and Tage Thompson scored 16 seconds apart to open the third period, and Buffalo snapped a three-game skid with a win over Ottawa.

Byram scored twice, JJ Peterka had two goals and an assist and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 37 saves.

Ridly Greig converted his own rebound in cutting Buffalo’s lead to 2-1 with 7:31 left in the second period. Linus Ullmark made 29 saves in dropping to 1-4 in his past five starts.

Buffalo went up 3-1 on Byram’s second goal 21 seconds into the third period. The defenceman’s shot from inside the blue line sneaked through Ullmark, with the puck rolling down the goalie’s pad, dropping into the crease and trickling across the line. Thompson scored when he crashed the net, was knocked over by defender Jake Sanderson and was lying in the crease when Alex Tuch’s shot went in off his shoulder.

—

MAPLE LEAFS 4 BRUINS 0

TORONTO (AP) — Anthony Stolarz made 29 saves for his first shutout of the season in Toronto’s 4-0 victory over Boston.

Morgan Rielly had a goal and two assists as Toronto connected three times on the power play. William Nylander and Matthew Knies added a goal and an assist each. Mitch Marner had two assists of his own. Steven Lorentz rounded out the scoring into the empty net.

The Leafs played without captain Auston Matthews, who is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury.

Jeremy Swayman made 23 stops for Boston, which was coming off consecutive weekend shutouts of the Philadelphia Flyers and Seattle Kraken.

Toronto’s porous 31st-ranked power play scored for the second time in as many games at 8:44 of the second period when Rielly fired through a screen. Nylander banked in his team-leading 10th goal of the season on another man advantage 1:14 later for a 2-0 lead.

The Bruins entered the game 8-0-0 in the regular season against their Atlantic Division rival dating back to Jan. 14, 2023.

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FLAMES 3 CANADIENS 2 (OT)

MONTREAL (AP) — Matt Coronato scored twice as Calgary came back to defeat Montreal in overtime.

Coronato tied the game with 2:46 remaining in regulation when he cruised into the slot and went off the post and in. He then buried the winning goal seven seconds into the extra period.

Connor Zary also scored for Calgary, which won its second game in seven outings. Dustin Wolf stopped 21 shots.

Joel Armia — with a short-handed goal — and Brendan Gallagher scored for Montreal (4-7-2). Armia also provided an assist, while Sam Montembeault made 32 saves as the Canadiens’ losing streak extended to four games.

Zary opened the scoring with his third 4:20 into the second period when he pounced on a loose puck in the slot and fired a shot past Montembeault.

Gallagher then slipped the puck between Wolf’s pads at 16:23 to level the score with his fifth of the season.

—

BLUES 3 LIGHTNING 2

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Jordan Kyrou, Alexey Toropchenko and Oskar Sundqvist scored to help St. Louis beat Tampa Bay 3-2.

Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington made 21 saves for his 149th career win moving him past Jake Allen for second place in franchise history, just two wins behind Mike Liut’s 151.

Nick Perbix and Victor Hedman scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 20 saves for the Lightning who have lost three straight games.

Kyrou scored his fourth goal of the season 8:51 into the third period to give St. Louis a 3-1 lead.

Toropchenko scored his first goal of the season with 1:35 remaining in the second period to put St. Louis ahead 2-1 after Sundqvist tied the game with his first of the season 7:47 into the period.

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ISLANDERS 4 PENGUINS 3 (SO)

NEW YORK (AP) — Bo Horvat scored the only goal in a shootout and New York rallied past Pittsburgh 4-3.

New York goalie Ilya Sorokin denied Rickard Rakell, Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang in the shootout and finished with 32 saves. Kyle Palmieri had a goal and an assist for the Islanders, who trailed 3-1 midway through the third period.

Simon Holmstrom and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored in the third for New York. Horvat had two assists.

Evgeni Malkin had a goal and an assist to lead Pittsburgh. Crosby got his 598th career goal, and Michael Bunting also scored. Rakell added two assists.

Alex Nedeljkovich stopped 23 shots for the Penguins, who have lost seven of nine. They won their previous two following a six-game skid.

—

KINGS 5 WILD 1

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Trevor Lewis scored twice, Kevin Fiala added another on the power play and Los Angeles beat Minnesota 5-1.

Warren Foegele and Quinton Byfield also scored for Los Angeles, which was playing the second night of a back-to-back after a 3-0 win in Nashville a night earlier. David Rittich made 23 saves for the Kings.

Fiala, who was traded to Los Angeles in 2022 by Minnesota for a first-round pick draft pick and defenceman Brock Faber, scored his seventh goal of the season. He now has three goals and six assists in his last seven games against the Wild.

Minnesota, which had won three in a row, opened the scoring in the second period on Zach Bogosian’s first goal of the season. Goaltender Filip Gustavsson stopped 23 shots for the Wild.

—

JETS 3 UTAH 0

WINNIPEG, Man. (AP) — Nino Niederreiter scored twice in his 900th NHL career game and Connor Hellebuyck made 21 saves to help Winnipeg defeat Utah 3-0.

It was Hellebuyck’s second shutout of the season and 39th of this career.

Gabriel Vilardi also scored for the Jets. Adam Lowry assisted on both goals by Niederreiter.

Utah ended a run of picking up points in three consecutive games (1-0-2).

Karel Vejmelka stopped 25 shots for Utah in its second stop on a four-game road trip.

Jets winger Kyle Connor had his franchise-record, season-opening points streak end at 12 games.

—

AVALANCHE 6 KRAKEN 3

DENVER (AP) — Arturri Lehkonen scored the go-ahead goal on a power play in his season debut and Nathan MacKinnon had five assists as Colorado beat Seattle 6-3.

Mikko Rantanen added two goals for the Avalanche, who snapped a three-game losing streak. Ivan Ivan, Nikolai Kovalenko and Chris Wagner also scored for Colorado.

Cale Makar had two assists but the star defenceman barely played in the second half of the game and appeared to be slowed by an apparent injury during a brief shift.

MacKinnon and Makar extended their season-opening point streaks to 13 games.

Lehkonen played for the first time since off-season shoulder surgery.

Jared McCann, Jaden Schwartz and Brandon Montour scored for the Kraken.

—

CANUCKS 5 DUCKS 1

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Brock Boeser, Danton Heinen and Kiefer Sherwood had a goal and an assist apiece, and Quinn Hughes recorded his 300th career assist in Vancouver’s victory over Anaheim.

Jake DeBrusk and Elias Pettersson also scored and Hughes had three assists for the Canucks, who have won six of eight. Kevin Lankinen made 21 saves in Vancouver’s sixth consecutive win over the Ducks.

Olen Zellweger scored a power-play goal early in the first period for Anaheim, which has lost seven of nine. Lukas Dostal stopped 31 shots.

Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko took shots from teammates again after the morning skate, and he could return to practice this week. The Southern California native and 2023-24 Vezina Trophy finalist hasn’t played this season due to a knee injury incurred late last season.

—

SHARKS 2 BLUE JACKETS 1 (OT)

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Alex Wennberg scored 3:11 into overtime and San Jose celebrated the return of No. 1 overall draft pick Macklin Celebrini with a win over Columbus.

Defenceman Jack Thompson scored his first career goal for the Sharks (4-8-2), who entered the night with the worst record in the NHL. San Jose has won four of five.

Celebrini, the top pick in the 2024 NHL draft, missed 12 games with a hip injury he sustained in the season opener Oct. 10 — an injury first incurred during the pre-season. Celebrini didn’t score and missed a shot early in overtime.

San Jose goalie Vitek Vanacek was fantastic in net, making 49 saves.

Blue Jackets right wing Kirill Marchenko scored for the second consecutive game. Columbus (5-6-1) has lost three straight.

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Canada’s Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Routliffe pick up second win at WTA Finals

Published

2 days ago

November 5, 2024

Anne Joseph

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe remain undefeated in women’s doubles at the WTA Finals.

The 2023 U.S. Open champions, seeded second at the event, secured a 1-6, 7-6 (1), (11-9) super-tiebreak win over fourth-seeded Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in round-robin play on Tuesday.

The season-ending tournament features the WTA Tour’s top eight women’s doubles teams.

Dabrowski and Routliffe lost the first set in 22 minutes but levelled the match by breaking Errani’s serve three times in the second, including at 6-5. They clinched victory with Routliffe saving a match point on her serve and Dabrowski ending Errani’s final serve-and-volley attempt.

Dabrowski and Routliffe will next face fifth-seeded Americans Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk on Thursday, where a win would secure a spot in the semifinals.

The final is scheduled for Saturday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Nov. 5, 2024.

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Allen nets shutout as Devils burn Oilers 3-0

Published

2 days ago

November 4, 2024

Anne Joseph

EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.

Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.

The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.

Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.

TAKEAWAYS

Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.

Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.

KEY MOMENT

New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.

KEY RETURN?

Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.

OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN

The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.

The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.

UP NEXT

Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.

Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.

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