The Raptors’ Game 1 felt like their curse was still alive ... until they won

Whatever demons that have followed the Toronto Raptors during Game 1s throughout their franchise’s history, they’ve finally quieted them. The Raptors had never won a Game 1 in the opening round, but the 114-106 win against the Washington Wizards finally pushes them over the edge.

It wasn’t the team that the Raptors might have picked to face in the first round. Washington has played inconsistently all year, but they also missed John Wall for half the season. The Wizards were also responsible for the lowest moment that this Raptors team has experienced — a first round sweep in 2015.

Washington led by four points at halftime, and Toronto’s two stars struggled again. This has been an on-going concern for the duo: DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry consistently underperform when the calendar rolls to April and May. On Saturday, DeRozan finished with 17 points on 6-of-17 shooting while Lowry only had 11 points while shooting 4-of-9 from the field.

In that sense, it felt just like previous Game 1s — the halftime deficit, the better-than-their-seeding opponent, the struggles from their stars. Toronto has spent all season saying and acting like this season is different, and it sure seemed like that’s true given how easily they won the Eastern Conference this year. But even into the fourth quarter, it was hard to be sure.

But then ... things changed. Lowry’s defense was exceptional, especially a late stop on a John Wall fast break where he rose up vertically and completely snuffed out his layup attempt.

DeRozan added six assists to make up for his mediocre shooting, and Lowry had nine himself. That league-best bench showed up on Saturday, especially when head coach Dwane Casey went to Lucas Nogueria off the bench. Nogueria only played in 49 games this season, but he has real NBA skills and performed well during his nine minutes, all in the second half. In total, Toronto’s bench added 42 points, and Delon Wright’s 18 were especially huge.

Toronto’s history in Game 1s truly is horrendous. Not only had they lost 10 straight, but they had an 0-7 record since 2014 with this same Lowry-DeRozan core, and were 1-12 all-time in such instances. In the past couple seasons, Toronto has been favored while holding one of the top-two seeds in the Eastern Conference. Yet for no discernible reason whatsoever, the opening game has been this team’s downfall.

Coming into the game, it was all anyone was talking about. Lowry even said that “Game 1 is our Game 7,” which was probably supposed to be him shrugging off the bad results but came across like someone who was thinking entirely too hard about this.

Even though the Raptors are a 59-win team that some people are even picking to represent the Eastern Conference, this win felt good. It was necessary. And it breaks an infamous streak that Toronto can’t wait to put behind them. You know? A Finals run would do just that.