Nurse says a post-season series would be terrific for growth of his young team

TORONTO — The Toronto Raptors' post-season hopes have come down to 10 final regular-season games.

Eight of them are at home, in a what should be a noisy, jam-packed Scotiabank Arena after playing much of the home schedule in front of virtually a handful of family and friends, due to COVID-19 restrictions.

For a youngster such as Scottie Barnes, a front-runner for NBA rookie of the year, these games will be the most important of his career so far.

The Raptors host Cleveland on Thursday in a key game, sitting a game behind the Cavaliers for the sixth playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

Coach Nick Nurse is eager to see how his team responds to the crunch of this stretch run.

"It's such a funny time of year," Nurse said after practice Wednesday. "I think there's some teams that are playing like they need to win every game because they need to make the playoffs or get something sorted out for home court or something and then there's some teams that aren't.

"So it's a funny time of year to try to put too much stock into it."

The Raptors (40-32) are coming off a "hell of a run," Nurse pointed out, that saw them win six consecutive road games against some tough opponents despite missing key players such as Fred VanVleet for some of it and OG Anunoby for all of it.

"If you would have looked at that going into it, you would have been ‘Oh boy,’" Nurse said. "And we came out of it I think beyond anybody's wildest dreams. Beat literally all the top teams in the league the last time we faced ‘em.

"I just want to keep building and keep playing and not get too caught up in what's coming. I would say this again. If the playoffs started tomorrow, I feel like we're ready … I don't want to sit here and say, 'Oh my god, we gotta