Drake loves his Toronto Raptors — like he loves the other 97 (and counting) other teams he cheers for — so just imagine the degree of pain he had to go through watching LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers subject the Raptors to four games of medieval-style torture in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
The torment is over now, but the pain still lingers for Toronto fans, and yes, even for our boy Drizzy.
Back in 2010, a chapter in the Raptors’ book ended when the team traded Chris Bosh to the Miami Heat. It’s not easy for Toronto to accept that the longtime cornerstone of its franchise was then off to South Beach to join a hated super team, but Drake was there to console the city and Raptors fans.
That same year, Drake was interviewed by ESPN where he plead for Toronto to be patient.
I am Raptors fan to the death. We just, I (sigh) … I'm a Raptors fan. I'm very patriotic about my city, but now that Chris [Bosh] isn't there we need something. Something has to give. We'll pull it together, Toronto is a great city. We've had some great players, we have a great facility, great spirit. I think eventually Toronto could be one of the top contenders in the league, I hope.
It would take some time before the franchise would get back up on its feet, as the Raptors had three straight losing seasons in which they won just a total of 79 games (22, 23,34) following Bosh’s departure. Three years after the split with Bosh, the Raptors would name Drake as the team’s global ambassador. The following year, the Raptors would become a bona fide postseason contender.
Over the next few years, the Raptors would remain a playoffs heavyweight in the Eastern Conference, but one whose faith is seemingly in the mercy of LeBron James. Last Monday, the Raptors were sent to extinction by the Cavs for the third year in a row. Whatever God’s plan is for Toronto, it sure does include the Raptors repeatedly incurring wounded feelings.
Drake songs are fueled by failed relationships. The Raptors are defined by failed playoffs adventures. Let’s revisit each of Toronto’s four latest disasters opposite the Cavs through the 6 God’s music.
Game 1: Summer Sixteen
The Raptors stepped into the second round series against the Cavs the same way Drake began 2016 – with a surplus of confidence.
Drake released Summer Sixteen in January of 2016 to deliver a bold claim to the rest of the hip hop world that he would own the year. In the same year, Kendrick Lamar dropped untitled unmastered, Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo was made ready for mass consumption, and Chance the Rapper’s Coloring Book hit streaming services, so Drake assuming that 2016 would be his was, yes, daring.
The Raps were also looking to avenge a sweep at the hands of Cleveland in the 2017 NBA Playoffs in Game 1, and they spent an entire regular season showing that they were a vastly different team than the one that was taken to the woodshed by Cleveland in the previous postseason.
In the early goings of Game 1, the Raptors did look like they would convert their confidence into a victory, taking a 33-19 lead at the end of the first quarter. The Cavs were coming off a hard-earned series win over the No. 5 seed Indiana Pacers. It took the Cavs seven games to do that against a team generally perceived weaker Toronto, and they all looked exhausted.
Yet, they turned it around and took down Toronto, 113-112, in overtime. So much for revenge – at least in Game 1.
Game 2: Hold On, We're Going Home
In Game 1, LeBron James had a triple-double, but one could make an argument that it was one of his worst games in the playoffs from an offensive perspective, as he shot just 12-for-30 from the field and 1-for-8 from distance.
The Raptors failed to capitalize on a rare bad LeBron shooting night, and unfortunately for them, James would not have another such performance in Game 2 with the four-time MVP unloading 43 points on a superb 19-for-28 shooting. With James back in top form, the Cavs chain-linked Toronto to the end of a truck and dragged the Raptors all game long before taking with them a 128-110 win.
At this point, the Raps’ morale had been dinged badly. Down 2-0 in the series, the Raptors’ patience were being tested. Just how much losing in the playoffs against the same team could they take before accepting that trying to defeat Cleveland is a futile endeavor?
After Game 2’s loss, the Raptors found themselves sharing the same dreary sentiment Drake has in Hold On, We're Going Home, in which Champagne Papi croons about asking himself to be patient, hoping there would come a time when his loneliness would end.
Even after another loss, the Raptors still had their eyes on the prize. “We thrive off of adversity”, DeMar DeRozan told reporters in the postgame presser. That’s as optimistic DeRozan and the Raptors could get given the situation they were in that time.
Game 3: Too Much
Another game, another loss for the Raptors.
Toronto was a loss away from striking out from the playoffs, an embarrassing fate for a team that finished the regular season No. 1 in their conference. The Raptors were chasing more than a win in this series in Game 3. They were after any semblance of respect the league and its fans had left for them, which was not a lot given how they were doing in the series. The first two losses to the Cavs were mentally taxing but their threshold for agony was put on an acid test when LeBron James scored that buzzer-beating, game-winning bank shot to led Cleveland to a 105-103 win.
“Don't think about it too much, too much, too much, too much” Drake sings in Too Much, but the Raptors could be forgiven for questioning whether it’s all over for them.
Cleveland has made it abundantly clear that it still has the Raptors’ number by beating Toronto in different ways: In Game 1, the Cavs came from behind; in Game 2, they thrashed Toronto; in Game 3, LeBron added to his collection of playoffs game-winners. The Cavs were too much for Toronto. To be more precise, LeBron was more than Toronto could handle.
Game 4: Good Ones Go
Garbage time came way too early in Game 4. Cleveland had the win and the series in the bag long before the final buzzer of the game sounded. The game turned into such a snoozefest that Rodney Hood would not even be bothered to get in the contest. Toronto mentally checked out of this game, as evidenced by the 35-point 128-93 Cavs win.
For the Raptors, Game 4 was not about whether they could eke out a win, but whether they would be the same after a series-long shellacking. It’s not a stretch to think that Toronto’s management will make dramatic changes on the team in the offseason, and if they do, firing Dwane Casey, arguably the best coach in franchise history, is likely one of those front office maneuvers.
Splitting the pair of DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry could also be a decision Toronto will make down the road.
In Drake’s Take Care track Good Ones Go, the hook goes “but the good ones go, the good ones go, if you wait too long.” Casey, DeRozan, and Lowry might soon become the good ones the Raptors have to let go off after trying for so long to win the Eastern Conference in vain.
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