Raptors avoid play-in tournament, clinch playoff spot in win over Atlanta

TSN Raptors Reporter

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TORONTO – Play-in for what?

A year ago at this time, the Raptors had already made the decision to cut their losses and look to the future. The pandemic had forced them to play their home games a long ways from home, a slow start set the tone, and then a team-wide COVID outbreak dashed any hope of salvaging a lost campaign.

So, instead of trying to squeeze into the play-in tournament, they opted to take a strategic step back and play for lottery balls in lieu of wins. Not an easy call for a championship-level organization that prides itself on its winning culture, one that had qualified for the playoffs in seven straight seasons prior to last year.

However, as Masai Ujiri explained following what he would later refer to as the “Tampa tank,” if everything went according to plan, they wouldn’t be down for very long.

“Everybody’s like, ‘why don’t you get in the play-in?’ Play-in for what? We want to win [another] championship here,” the Raptors president said, famously, after his club’s disappointing 2020-21 season came to an end last May. “We have to put ourselves in position [to do that].”

They’ve spent the last 12 months or so taking steps in that direction. Their time as a draft lottery team was short-lived, but highly successful. With the fourth pick, they added Scottie Barnes, a superstar in the making, to a young core that used this season to get back on track, individually and collectively. Fred VanVleet blossomed into an all-star, and Pascal Siakam didn’t just rediscover his pre-pandemic form, he’s exceeded it.

Once again, they’ve avoided the play-in, but this time it was because of ambition, not attrition. A year later, they are back where they want to be.

With Tuesday’s win