Raptors excited for “electric” season opener
Global News
Nick Nurse says he can always feel a buzz in the air a couple of days out from a Raptors home game in Toronto — an agreeable hum the coach hasn't felt in nearly two years.
TORONTO – Nick Nurse says he can always feel a buzz in the air a couple of days out from a Raptors home game in Toronto — an agreeable hum the coach hasn’t felt in nearly two years.
The Raptors host the Washington Wizards on Wednesday to tip off a season that’s different in so many ways. Longtime leader Kyle Lowry is gone. There’s no superstar like Kawhi Leonard. And the team is back on this side of the border, home — finally — after COVID-19 protocols forced the Raptors to call Tampa, Fla. “home” last season.
It was a poor substitute to home.
The key Wednesday, Nurse said, is to not let the excitement of the moment get the best of his team.
“I love it,” Nurse said Monday about the pre-game energy. “You can already feel it in the streets, you know?
“Obviously it’s going to be electric in (Scotiabank Arena). Everybody probably realizes the fans are going to be super amped up. And I think from my seat, we’ve got to make sure that we use a little bit of that electricity but we don’t get carried away with it ourselves … play with some type of composure and … we focus in on the basketball part of it for sure.”
The Raptors last played a regular-season game at Scotiabank Arena on Feb. 28, 2020, a forgettable loss to Charlotte, and then the global pandemic shuttered the sports world and eventually sent the Raptors to Tampa. Last season was one of their worst in franchise history, with a COVID-19 outbreak in March that saw them somersault down the Eastern Conference standings. Toronto finished 12th in the East (27-45).
Only four players — Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam, OG Anunoby and Chris Boucher — remain from that roster.
