We all have heard the phrase that basketball is a team sport and that there is a lot more needed for your team to succeed at winning than just great individuals. Is that really true? Rick Barry easily swept the Bullets in the 1975 NBA finals, Kobe Bryant dominated the 2009 Orlando Magic and Dirk Nowitzki’s sharpshooting against the Heat’s big three, won it for the Mavs in 2011 and that just shows that maybe the saying is not entirely true.
Well then, if one player can lead his team to the NBA finals and win it, would it be easier for two great players to do it? Jordan and Pippen, Shaq and Kobe, Magic and Kareem, Moses Malone and Julius Erving and many others can certainly approve of that.
On the other side, there are great duos that have dominated together in the regular season but just couldn’t win it all. John Stockton and Karl Malone is the first duo that comes to mind to every NBA fan all over the world. Payton and Kemp, Barkley and K. Johnson, Mourning and Hardaway, Ewing and Oakley, …
The list goes on and on and you just have to ask yourself one question: Why weren’t these great players able win the NBA title?
Is it because they didn’t have anyone to contribute alongside them? Is it because they didn’t like each other? They just didn’t have luck? Or, is it because they were ”cursed”?
Are they really ”cursed”? This is the question that you can hear year in and year out form the desperate Toronto Raptors fans.
Why can’t Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, arguably the best backcourt in the league, do anything when the NBA playoff comes? Why do they ”choke” when the regular season ends?
Well, let’s see…
Are they really that good?
Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan are averaging a combined 40 ppg (50 ppg last year!), 11 apg and 10 rpg for four seasons in a row now and that just shows that they can deliver.
But when the NBA playoffs come, when it’s time to deliver, they look like they are lost. Their FG% is around 44% which is not that bad considering the fact that they take the most shots during the game, but their 3P% is something else…
These two average a miserable 24% behind the arc and that is maybe the biggest reason why the Raptors are struggling in the postseason.
This season, Lowry is one of the best 3P shooters in the league. He has scored more points behind the three-point line then Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Damian Lillard and his 3P% is around 40% which is almost the same as he shot last year while DeMar is still struggling with his long-range shooting (3P 27%).
Are they maybe trying too much?
Well, it’s not a secret that the Toronto Raptors head coach Dwane Casey wants the team to ”share the sugar” more, rather than rely on one-on-one plays. The way they are playing this season is not a fluke.
DeMar told the press that the coach is yelling a lot of late, so maybe he has gotten to their heads finally and their first position in the East with 55 wins and 21 losses so far, just confirms that.
This season they look a little bit more like a true team compared to last year, so maybe this is the season the Raptors fans have been waiting for.
Kyle and DeMar are not running a lot of isolation plays for themselves this year like they did in the past and that is a good sign.
Ibaka, VanVleet, CJ Miles and Valanciunas are pretty solid with their shooting this year and that is taking of the pressure of these to a bit.
Is this their season?
So far, they are doing great with 31 wins and just 7 losses on their home court, while, on the other side, they hold a 24-14 record when playing on the road.
Their record against the Eastern Conference teams is 36-10, which shows that they are equally confident facing a Western Conf. rival or an Eastern one.
If their star players play it smart and remain efficient in the playoffs like they are during this regular season, who knows what can happen!?
The odds for the Toronto Raptors to win the NBA title are +700 (behind the Warriors, Rockets, and Cavs) and that is a pretty good one if you feel confident that Lowry and DeRozan can beat the famous ”curse”.
My personal opinion is that the Toronto Raptors might not win it all but that they will make it to the Eastern Conference Finals, especially if the Raptors star duo keeps their high regular-season confidence level come playoff time.
