Looking back on the Raptors in NBA Bubble five years later
To say it was a strange time is an understatement. Hyper-competitive athletes suddenly were surrounded by their opponents whenever they went to eat, relax by the pool or hang out on the complex. And players used to playing in front of packed arenas suddenly were competing in eerily quiet spaces.
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Coaches and players who always had screamed out plays and schemes knowing it would be drowned out by crowd noise quickly found out the opposition would pick up anything right away so adjustments had to be made. There were also no energy boosts provided by raucous fans, no home-court advantages anymore.
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Some were more ready to return than others. Pascal Siakam's decision not to pick up a basketball for so long put him way off his game (Siakam shot just 39.5% from the field and missed 43-of-53 three-point attempts in the bubble playoffs) and ended up hurting the Raptors. He wasn't the only one, though he has received the most attention in ensuing years.
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Still, Toronto won its first game back five years ago on Aug. 1, against the eventual champion Los Angeles Lakers no less, plus another against Miami, the team that would advance to take on the Lakers in the Finals, and Orlando before falling to Boston.
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The Raptors won 7-of-8 games in all and looked like a legitimate threat to repeat after steamrolling Brooklyn in four straight in the first round of the playoffs before dropping the first two games of the second round to the Celtics.
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The Raptors would win the next two (including Game 3 in epic fashion on OG Anunoby's buzzer-beater off a great pass from Kyle Lowry) to tie the series, then take Game 6 in double overtime after dropping Game 5, to force a Game 7. The Raptors couldn't pull that one out and their time in the bubble came to an end.
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The NHL also adopted a bubble type of system after its season had been paused on March 12. The rest of the regular season was cancelled, with the playoffs played in the two centralized 'hub' cities Toronto and Edmonton, starting Aug. 1, but with no spectators.
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Major League Baseball had cancelled the rest of Spring Training on March 12, but it began again on July 1 rebranded as 'Summer Camp.'
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The shortened regular season commenced on July 23, but the Blue Jays were denied permission to play in Toronto, so they spent their home games in Buffalo.
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The Blue Jays did not actually play a game at Rogers Centre again until July 30, 2021, having previously played there in September of 2019 when the team completed an awful 67-win campaign (the Raptors spent the 2020-21 season in Tampa and didn't play again in Toronto until Oct. 2021).
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