The Raptors crashed, burned, and ruined their best season in franchise history

DeMar DeRozan’s season ended 12 minutes and 24 seconds earlier than his teammates, thanks to a late third quarter ejection in Monday’s Game 4, and you can only think that they had to be jealous. Getting to retire to the locker room early before the forthcoming 128-93 loss? To avoid the television cameras and get out of a jubilant Cleveland crowd that was joyous in your moments of heartbreak?

Any Raptor on that floor must have wanted that.

Toronto’s season is over. They have lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers for the third straight postseason, and they’ve been swept out of the playoffs for the third time since they’ve assembled this DeRozan and Kyle Lowry core. This offseason will bring serious questions, and it could possibly even lead to Dwane Casey’s firing. Mind you, Casey has been in consideration for Coach of the Year all season — he’ll get more than one first place vote. After this debacle, fairly or not, no one is safe from consequences.

This was absolutely Toronto’s chance: they won a franchise record 59 games; they reinvented their identity with Casey’s help, shooting way more three-pointers and seriously investing in a defensive identity; they even built a young bench with promise. For a team without a top-20 player, it was arguably as good as any team could be.

The one problem: they keep playing a team that has a top-one player.

On Monday, James didn’t embarrass the team with a 40-point game or a playground-like game winner. He was great, and his teammates were even better. A couple days after Saturday Night Live parodied how bad the non-LeBron Cavaliers have been — deservedly so, I would say — it was that same pilloried supporting cast that looked like they were the best in the world.

That might be Toronto’s biggest embarrassment. Sure, their culture didn’t hold up. Their defense sagged and bent at the hands of the game’s best player. Their stars struggled, yet again, when the crushing weight of the playoffs pushed them down. But worse than all that, they let Cleveland’s supporting cast embarrass them, one that had universally been a joke in a first round series against the Indiana Pacers.

This isn’t a story about what tactically went wrong, or why the Raptors couldn’t get more out of their personnel. I’m well aware there were matchup problems, and that there are ceilings on how good teams can be without a truly dominant star. It’s clear that some of Cleveland’s supporting cast’s rejuvenation was just luck. All these factors came back to bite Toronto, but they swore this team could be different. Well ... they couldn’t.

Toronto earned so many believers this season, and many people swearing that this year would be different. It wasn’t as far from being different as people might think — what happens if Jonas Valanciunas’ Game 1 tip does go in and win that game, or if James’ HORSE shot clanks off the rim? But basketball is cruel, and it doesn’t reward the almost-victors or the teams that ask, “What could have happened if luck was on our side?” History only remembers the winners, and recently, that has only been LeBron.

This was still Toronto’s best season in franchise history, and it will always be marred by the worst possible ending that the team could have ever imagined. (For proof: see how often Mavericks fans reference their 67-win year and subsequent first round flameout.) To go down in four games, to legitimately be swept, to lose against a team that barely advanced out of the first round ... what if the Raptors would have all been ejected in that third quarter? Hell, maybe in the opening moments of Game 1?

It’s not like anything would have changed.