Title: Raptor Recalibration, Game 3: Hesitation blues, 76ers dial up ball-screen volume and more
Date: May 3, 2019
Original Source: The Athletic
Synopsis: In my latest for The Athletic, my playoff day-after playoff column looked at a terrible Game 3 loss for the Raptors that put them in a precarious 2-1 hole to the 76ers.
There are five days between Rupert Angier’s diary entries in Christopher Priest’s “The Prestige,” a terrific book that was later turned into a decent, if far more heavy-handed, film.
On October 10, 1877, Angier, now the narrator of the book through the lens of his journaling, writes: “I am in love! Her name is Drusilla MacAvoy.”
On October 15, 1877, he follows up: “Too hasty by far! The MacAvoy woman was not for me. I am planning to kill myself, and if the remainder of these pages are blank anyone who comes across this diary will know I succeeded.”
It is beautifully macabre.
It is also probably the best representation of the feelings of Raptors fans over the first eight games of the postseason. Very low lows, like losing another Game 1 at home, gave way to very high highs, like winning five consecutive playoff games and nearly stealing a sixth. Those highest of highs offer the biggest falls afterward, though, like turning in a comprehensively poor Game 3 performance to fall behind 2-1 in a series to the Philadelphia 76ers.
The Playoff Raptors are in love! Too hasty by far!
