A very different Raptors team returns to Toronto after more than a year-and-a-half of pandemic exile.
The new-look team will take on the Washington Wizards on Wednesday night in their first regular season game at home since February 28, 2020.
It’s been 20 months, or 600 days, since the team has played a meaningful game at Scotiabank Arena.
Raptors In-Game Host Mariah Amber tells CityNews that Wednesday night’s season opener is going to be special and emotional for fans.
“To see everybody back in this arena, everybody’s going to feel it, everybody’s going to air high five,” says Amber. “I’m just excited to see us unite again, to see the entire city unite through sports.”
After a run of five-straight 50 win seasons — that culminated in the 2019 NBA championship — the Raptors pandemic season away from home went off the rails. The team dealt with a COVID-19 outbreak while playing home games in Tampa, Fla., last year, on their way to their first losing season in seven years.
Now the team hopes to regain their winning touch in what many pundits are predicting will be a transition year. Most Vegas prognosticators estimate the team will win somewhere in the neighbourhood of 36 games, which would leave them well short of a playoff spot in most seasons.
“We have a winning culture we believe,” says Raptors President Masai Ujiri. “But we are a young team, and young teams in the NBA sometimes struggle, sometimes go through hard times.”
With Kyle Lowry now playing in Miami, Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam, O.G. Anunoby and Chris Boucher are the only holdovers from the 2019 championship roster, they are also the only four players on the roster who have played a meaningful home game in Toronto.
Siakam will start the season on the shelf with an injury, expected to return in approximately a month after an off-season shoulder surgery.
Guard Malachi Flynn hopes to make a leap and carve out a larger role in his second season with the team. The Raptors selectedrookie Scottie Barnes with the fourth overall pick in the 2021 NBA draft — a somewhat controversial choice at the time.
“You just know it’s just going to be crazy because the fans,” says Barnes. “They just can’t wait to get back in the arena and see the Raptors playing right in front of their faces.”
Goran Dragic arrived as part of the sign-and-trade that saw Lowry moved to the Miami Heat. The veteran guard was interviewed in his native Slovenia shortly after the move and asked about the prospect of playing for Canada’s only NBA franchise.
“I have higher ambitions, we’ll see,” says Dragic.
Nevertheless, he has said all the right things since then and appears ready to embrace his role as a veteran leader on a team with its share of youth.
The addition of Dragic, along with offseason pickups of Ukrainian Svi Mikhailiuk, German Isaac Bonga and Nigerian Precious Achiuwa, make the Raptors the most diverse team in the league.
Japan, Cameroon, St. Lucia, Great Britain and Uganda are also represented on the current roster.
Dalano Banton made history when the raptors took him in the second round of the NBA draft this summer. The Rexdale native became the first Canadian, and Torontonian, drafted by the team. Banton joins, Khem Birch and Boucher as the third Canadian on the roster.
Officials from Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment revealed updated pandemic protocols last week for both Leafs and Raptors games now that the green light was given to full capacity crowds in Ontario.
Any fans over the age of 12 will have to show full proof of vaccination to get into the arena as per provincial rules. The security screening at the arena will now be contactless and fans are being urged to allow extra time for the screening when entering the arena.
Masks will be required inside the arena unless individuals are actively eating or drinking. MLSE says strict enforcement will be in place ensuring people follow the masking rules.
Unlike previous Raptors season openers at home, there will be no pre-game party outside of the arena at ‘Jurassic Park’ due to COVID-19.
MLSE will also be rolling out a refreshed concession lineup inside the Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday night.
