TORONTO — Terrence Ross opened his door at the Park Hyatt Chicago even before Dwane Casey knocked.
He looked at his old coach standing in the hall and knew that the rumours were true: after four-plus seasons with the only NBA organization he’d ever known, Ross was no longer a member of the Toronto Raptors.
Emotions run high after a trade. Ross returned Monday for the first time since being moved in mid-February, a visitor at his old home.
“It’s different. It’s different,” he said Monday. “Seeing all the old spots I used to roam around in.”
Ross got a warm ovation before the game and a prolonged one during a video tribute early in the first quarter of the Raptors’ 131-112 win over the Orlando Magic, Toronto’s sixth straight, pulling them within a half-game of the Washington Wizards for third place in the Eastern Conference with eight to play.
The return of the well-liked former player makes for a warm and fuzzy story line, but let’s be honest, that’s as far as it goes. The Raptors (45-29) are on to something bigger and potentially much better.
It was nice to see Ross back, but the Raptors have never been better since he (along with their first-round pick in the 2017 draft) were traded for Serge Ibaka, who turned out to be a poor fit with the Orlando Magic but custom-made for the Raptors.
It was part of a mid-season remake that could see Toronto do some special things in the post-season, providing Kyle Lowry gets healthy in time.
Ross is a better talent than a player — and he’s a pretty good player. But while Casey speaks very fondly of Ross, even likening him to a son, his answer when asked about his memories of Ross’ 51-point game in a loss to the Los Angeles Clippers during the 2013-14 season, sums up Ross’ Raptors career in a single sentence.
“I remember that distinctly,” Casey said of Ross’ career night. “I remember the next game he had two [actually 10].”
So losing Ross but gaining Ibaka and his fellow bruise brother P.J. Tucker at the trade deadline was almost a no-brainer.
But what has been surprising — shocking almost — is how well the Raptors have fared without Lowry, who has never played or practiced with the new additions, out for the last month since having surgery to remove bone chips from the wrist on his shooting hand.
There is no update on his expected return, even though early projections were that Lowry would be eyeing his return by now.
“I don’t want to quantify exactly what he’s doing [with regard to his return],” said Casey. “But he’s working his butt off as far as getting ready for whatever it is coming, but don’t want to say exactly what he’s doing, where he is, how he is. That’s for him and the medical people to announce.”
In Lowry’s absence the Raptors have announced through their actions — if not their words — that if he can come back in time to get up to game speed before the playoffs, the Raptors could be a force to be reckoned with.
Their win over the Magic didn’t exactly follow their emerging formula. Toronto allowed a lottery-bound Orlando team to hang around a little too long, empowering them with some indifferent defence that saw the Magic shoot 54.5 per cent through three quarters. After trailing by as many as 19, Orlando had cut Toronto’s lead to five before a quick burst in the final second of the third quarter — a score by DeMar DeRozan and steal by the emerging Delon Wright that the second-year guard converted to a triple at the buzzer — put Toronto back up by 10.
But the Raptors turned the defence up in the fourth, holding Orlando to 7-of-22 shooting to put the Magic away.
It’s hard to overstate how unexpected all of this is. When stars go down in the NBA, teams struggle. The Cleveland Cavaliers are 0-6 this season and 4-21 over the past three seasons without LeBron James in their lineup. The Golden State Warriors went 2-4 in their first six games without Kevin Durant, although they have won five straight since, while the Los Angeles Clippers went 8-13 when Chris Paul was out after having surgery on his thumb.
Only a fool would argue the Raptors are a better team without Lowry. The point is more what they can be when he comes back. Without their star point guard, the Raptors have leveraged the defensive acumen of trade acquisitions Ibaka and Tucker while getting some inspired play from DeRozan — he celebrated his team-record fourth NBA Eastern Conference player of the week award with 36 points on 21 shots — to remarkable heights.
Toronto entered play Monday with the second-best defensive rating in the NBA since the all-star break, allowing just 100.9 points/100 possessions, compared with their 106 mark prior to Lowry’s injury, which ranked them 16th in the league and looked like a flaw that might be fatal in the post-season.
There are some caveats there — the Raptors have enjoyed a reasonable schedule, playing just eight games against teams that currently have a winning record and with 10 of the 17 games at home — but the sample size is big enough to be noticeable at the very least.
“They’re a threat to win the East, I think, absolutely,” said Magic head coach Frank Vogel. “You see the way they’re playing without Kyle right now, obviously, they were in the conference finals last year, so they’re definitely in the conversation.”
Internally expectations are beginning to creep up even as the Cavaliers — losers in a blowout to San Antonio, dropping them to 8-10 since the all-star break, with cratering defensive metrics — seem to be rolling aside the boulder blocking the path to the summit of Eastern Conference supremacy.
The math is pretty simple: the Raptors are arguably the hottest team in the East right now, and can yet expect to add their most impactful player.
“With Kyle, we’re going to make a big step when he comes back,” said Ibaka, getting straight to the point.
Raptors fans don’t have to think too far back to how Toronto fared the last time Lowry — one of the NBA’s most impactful all-around players over the past four seasons — missed extended time. Lowry returned out-of-sorts from the 2015 all-star game — he missed 13 games and was a shadow of himself in many others — and the Raps swooned right along with him as Toronto finished 12-16 and were swept by Washington in the first round of the playoffs.
This time things feel different. The additions of Tucker and Ibaka have turned the Raptors from a defensively suspect team into a good one. The role players are rolling — Cory Joseph had his first career double-double with 15 points and 13 assists, while backup point guard Wright chipped in seven points and three assists of his own.
Losing Ross was a small price to pay. DeRozan is playing the best basketball of his career. Cleveland is wobbling.
The Raptors have proven since the all-star break they are ready to get lucky, even if it means making their own luck.
Opportunity is at hand. It’s knocking loudly on the door. Now it all depends on Lowry’s wrist.
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