The significance of this week is not lost on the Raptors as they try to climb out of the deep hole they dug in a brutal first half of the season.
And for all the one-game-at-a-time philosophy they espouse, they are admitting games tonight in New Jersey and Friday at home to Milwaukee carry extra weight. "It was the first thing we addressed today," coach Jay Triano said after yesterday's practice. "Where we are, where they are and what this week means to us."
Where the Raptors are is 18-28 and in 13th place in the 15-team Eastern Conference.
But as bad as that record is -- only eight teams in the league are worse off than Toronto -- it's not as if the season is shot.
The Nets occupy ninth place with a 20-25 record, and the Bucks, who have lost leading scorer Michael Redd for the season with a knee injury, are in eighth with a paltry 20-25 record. The 19-25 Knicks, 18-26 Charlotte Bobcats and the 18-27 Chicago Bulls began play last night also between the Raptors and the final playoff berth.
"Two teams that are just above us in the standings," said Anthony Parker, in assessing the next few days. "Every game's important but these two, with the teams in the positions they are, we know we have to have."
Wanting to have and getting are two entirely different things for the Raptors. They've already lost once to the Bucks in Milwaukee and were beaten at home by Chicago.
Consistency has been Toronto's biggest weakness this season, and carrying a two-game winning streak into New Jersey tonight probably isn't worth a whole lot. The Raptors have not won more than three in a row this season.
"It starts right here in practice," Parker said. "You can't really look around the league too much, you can only do what you can control. We want to string some games together."
Beating the Nets often comes down to stopping the high-scoring duo of Vince Carter and Devin Harris, both of whom average 21 points a game.
"We're talking about two guys who could potentially be on the all-star team," Triano said. "They do the majority of their scoring and the majority of their playmaking, so we have to make sure we know where those two guys are. Both of those guys have hurt us this year when they've got on a roll."
Adding to the significance of tonight's game is Toronto's need for a win to split the four-game season series with the Nets. It's not too early to start thinking about tiebreakers, and a New Jersey win gives the Nets a leg up on Toronto.
"When you look at it, there's another half game involved in this because of the tiebreaker situation should we end up being tied," Triano said. "(The game is) very significant."
