Raptors win gives Toronto remarkable stat over Eastern Conference foes

TORONTO – The Toronto Raptors will enter this month's NBA playoffs with the confidence of having not lost a single regular season series against its fellow contenders. 

With the Raptors 96-90 victory against the Charlotte Hornets on Tuesday night at Toronto's Air Canada Centre, the team will finish this season's 82-game schedule with no worse than an even record against every current playoff team in the Eastern Conference. 

The last remaining piece in the puzzle is a Friday home game vs. the Indiana Pacers, who trail the the Raptors 2-1 in the season series but could tie it up with a victory. When it comes to all the rest, though, the Raptors have edged each potential playoff opponent during regular season competition. 

"It's a great feeling, that's what you're fighting for," says Raptors center Jonas Valanciunas. "We're fighting to be as high as we can be so we're trying to make a big push."

They bested the No. 1 seed Cleveland Cavaliers in three of four meetings, hold a 3-0 lead against the No. 3 seed Atlanta Hawks with one matchup remaining, and won three of four games against the No. 4 Boston Celtics and No. 5 Miami Heat. They topped the Detroit Pistons and Hornets in their head-to-heads, as well.

The competitiveness of those games ranged from one-sided blowouts to razor-thin overtime thrillers. Nevertheless, the Raptors have managed to find a way to win more often than not in what ended up being the team's most important games, a promising sign for playoffs. 

But what does it all mean during the playoffs when every team gets a clean slate and advancing boils down to a seven-game series? Raptors coach Dwayne Casey says not much, other than the awareness of what kind of effort needs to be put forth by the players.

"It gives us a good situation to go through," Casey says. "Knock down, drag out, the physicality of this game is what we're going to see in the playoffs. Teams are going to make runs are you, you got to protect leads, execute in the half-court game, setting screens, playing transition – all of those things playing at high level. … That's what you're going to see in the playoffs."

The Raptors weren't playing with much to lose against the Hornets, who are battling for superior positioning in the Eastern Conference. The Hornets made a late-game push in which they cut a 19-point second-half lead to four, but ultimately the Raptors found to a way to hang on. 

The NBA's lone Canadian-based squad has already locked up no worse than the No. 2 seed, which is likely where the team will remain barring an improbable stretch of outcomes by the Cavaliers over the season's final five games.

With the season nearing an end and the playoff picture starting to crystalize, one team that finds itself on the outside looking in is the Chicago Bulls. The Raptors should be pleased that's the case, as the Bulls have been their kryptonite, winning nine consecutive head-to-head matchups dating back to the Raptors last win against them in December 2013.

The win over the Hornets marked more than one accomplishment for this year's Raptors, who've set a franchise record with 52 wins. Tuesday's win was their 30th home victory on the season, tying a team record. Two opportunities to break that record will come in Friday's game against the Pacers as well as the Raptors final home game of the seasons against the Philadelphia 76ers on April 12. 

After that, it's time to gear up for the intensity of playoff basketball, where Valanciunas says the Raptors must leave any memories of regular season success behind. 

"Playoffs is a different game; playoffs is a different animal," he says. "You just prepare differently and you just know it's going to be different teams. We cannot look at the regular season when we're going to play a playoff game. We got to refresh the mind and be ready because every team is going to fight really hard."