Raptors Talk Play-In Hopes & Chasing Down the Hawks

The Toronto Raptors have opted to be naïve.

In reality, the chances of a play-in berth this season are almost non-existent. The Raptors sit four games back of the Atlanta Hawks for the 10th seed in the Eastern Conference and it would take an astonishing turnaround from Toronto to eclipse the Hawks who have clinched the tiebreaker over the Raptors thanks to their division record too. Sure, a three-game winning streak for the Raptors was nice. So too has Toronto’s play as of late. But at this point, a play-in berth seems nearly impossible.

Just don’t tell the team that.

“We’ll definitely try to get there,” Bruce Brown told reporters Thursday when the topic of a play-in berth was mentioned to him “You never know what happens in March. What? Miami was on a play-in and made it to the Finals so you never know.”

March and early April can certainly be strange.

Take last season, for example. Toronto went 15-11 over the final two months of the season last year thanks to 14 games against non-playoff teams and another half dozen or so games in which the playoff teams they did play rested or were without at least one All-Star caliber player.

“A lot of teams are scratching and clawing and fighting for their life and other teams are looking for life,” Kelly Olynyk told reporters Thursday. “As a player, you've got to be as steady as you can, even-keeled and even-headed, and go in and be a professional. … You've got to keep those habits, get a little bit better every single day. That hopefully translates into wins — this year, next year, wherever it is.”

The Raptors should get the benefit of playing some of those teams still looking for life. They have two games against Washington and three more against Detroit, Portland, and Charlotte. Their schedule is considered easier than Atlanta’s who have the eighth-toughest remaining schedule.

If that’s enough to keep the Raptors engaged for the final few weeks, Toronto, and head coach Darko Rajaković will take it. As Rajaković mentioned Wednesday, he is well aware of what the Hawks are doing and how the play-in picture is looking these days.

For his team, it’s an extra incentive to keep working.

“You definitely have something to play for,” Olynyk said. “If you could sneak into that 10 spot and that play-in, anything can happen. All of a sudden you have a playoff series, and you get hot and now you're rolling and now you build confidence, and you never know what happens.”

If that’s how Toronto wants to approach these final 23 games, it can’t hurt. Convincing the team that these are playoff-like games with a berth on the line should only help this young Raptors core in the long-run.