BOSTON - An anonymous Raptors player stepped into the elevator descending from the third floor following a Saturday afternoon practice at Air Canada Centre and with the mental and physical grind of a long season beginning to weigh on him he let out a long sigh. "I just want the playoffs to start," he said in a moment of refreshing truthfulness. Hes not alone. He cant be. They can see the light at the end of the tunnel, a tunnel that has led to darkness so many times before for the bulk of this Toronto roster. On Wednesday they moved one step closer. "That was a character test for us," Dwane Casey said after his teams bounce-back 99-90 win in Boston. "I think this team has a lot of character. I get upset with them but theyre mine, just like youre kids. They compete hard and they make mistakes but its not from a lack of fight or togetherness." It was their first victory in Beantown since 2008, the last season in which they qualified for the playoffs. Now, theyre on the cusp of returning to the postseason, and theyre in the drivers seat. The Raptors are just one win, or Knicks loss, away from clinching their first postseason berth in six years and can do so as early as Wednesday evening if the Kings defeat New York in Sacramento, a game Kyle Lowry says he wont watch but admits hell have to keep an eye on. "I said that before the game, I said look, we can take care of our business tonight," Lowry told the assembled media after the win. "We cant count on anyone else but we can take care of our part. I aint going to lie; I think tonight everybodys rooting for that Western Conference team over there." Going into the game, the Raptors were in danger of dropping their second straight and five of their last seven, following Tuesdays botched comeback attempt in Cleveland. Even after getting off to a better start - scoring 31 points in the opening 12 minutes after totaling 33 in their last two first quarters - they looked like a team going through the motions at points in the middle of the game, exchanging the lead with a lackluster Celtics club. Then the sense of urgency kicked in. Lowry scored nine of his 23 points in the fourth quarter and the Raptors closed out a win they needed to have. "[Casey] challenged us," Lowry said. "He challenged us big time and I think we responded tonight." With a little help from the Bobcats, who defeated the surging Nets in overtime, the Raptors have a two-game cushion sitting stop the Atlantic Division, also moving into a virtual tie with the Bulls for the Easts third seed. Although theyre anxious, theres still work to be done and each game, regardless of opponent, is increasingly meaningful with playoff seeding at stake and things to shore up over the seasons final three weeks. "We cant afford to look ahead," Casey cautioned. "Weve got to take care of business. Weve got to continue to get better and improve and shape up some areas that we have thats leaking a little bit." Only five of the Raptors 15 players have appeared in a postseason game over the last three years. Only three on the roster have logged time in more than 20 playoff contests. The teams starters have a combined 24 games of playoff experience, all from Lowry and Amir Johnson, who havent been to the dance in five years. "Its tough just because guys havent been there before," Casey told TSN.ca. "Playoff runs are tough. Theres a mental toughness, a physical toughness you have to have. Fight through injuries, little nicks and bangs that we have. You cant feel sorry for yourself because its a marathon. Youve got to be able to do that. This is the first time for some of our guys so its a new frontier for them." Many of them are heading into unchartered waters. Its only natural to fixate on the final destination but theyve come too far to lose focus now. "I think its kind of human nature," said Landry Fields, who started eight playoff games for the Knicks in his first two NBA season. "We see the playoffs and theres a pretty high probability that well get in but at the end of the day you cant really focus on that. These last few games are important, not just for us growing and building and getting momentum for the playoffs but also seeding. Seeding is huge in the playoffs and I think as long as we keep that as a focal point rather than thinking these games are just filler games until we get into the playoffs than theyll become more meaningful for us." "Were going to finish it off strong," echoed DeMar DeRozan, who scored 20 on Wednesday and will be making his playoff debut next month. "Weve worked too hard to just to get complacent with where were at. Weve still got a long ways to go and everybody in this locker room loves the game too much to sit back and say, were going to wait until the playoffs." Big night for the sophomores Both Terrence Ross and Jonas Valanciunas stepped up in Wednesdays win. Ross led Toronto with 24 points, hitting five of his nine attempts from three-point range, while Valanciunas registered his team-leading 20th double-double of the season with 15 points and 14 rebounds. "I thought Jonas had one of his better nights, not only scoring but he rebounded," Casey said. "[Ross] kept us afloat. He knocked down some shots. We needed it." Struggling second unit The Raptors second unit - still without injured forward Patrick Patterson - mustered only seven points, all from Greivis Vasquez, who made just three of his 10 shots. Meanwhile, the Celtics bench scored 51, led by Jared Sullingers 26, 19 of which came in the fourth. "Again, point production from our bench has been an issue," Casey said. "Thats something we have to rectify. Thats just putting too many minutes on our starters." Toronto bench has now been outscored by a total of 129 points in 11 games without Patterson, who was cleared for contact earlier this week. Although theres no timetable for the return of Patterson - out with an elbow injury - the team hopes to have him back later this week. The stat The Raptors snapped an 11-game losing streak in Boston, the fourth time theyve snapped a skid of eight road losses or more against an opponent this season. Earlier this year, Toronto ended a 10-game slide to the Lakers in Los Angeles, also snapping a nine-game skid against the Nuggets in Denver and an eight-game losing streak versus the Bucks in Milwaukee. The quote "We cant worry about those other teams," Lowry said. "We control our own destiny. When you start worrying about other teams is when you lose focus and I think tonight we did a good job of focusing in on our team and not worrying about nothing else."
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Levine Toilolo Jersey .com) - Stanley Johnson had 18 points and No. CALGARY -- Dane Dobbie stands 5-foot-8, but the Roughnecks forward has been a big contributor to Calgarys offence all season. Saturday night was no different. Dobbie scored three goals and assisted on another to lead Calgary to a 10-7 victory over the Rochester Knighthawks in the opening game of the National Lacrosse Leagues Champions Cup final. "Youve got people that are probably a foot-and-a-half taller than him just trying to break his wrists," said Roughnecks coach Curt Malawsky. "Theyre not trying to dislodge the ball, theyre trying to break his wrist and break his arm. You see at the end, the guy tried to take his head off. But all that does is fuel Dobs fire." The NLLs leading goal scorer during the regular season with 51, Dobbie has a penchant for scoring the clutch goal. His third goal of the night Saturday, scored 2:07 into the fourth quarter, was his biggest of the game. It came after Rochester had reduced a 7-3 second quarter deficit to 7-6 entering the final 15 minutes. Dobbie neatly finished off a tic-tac-toe passing sequence with Karsen Leung and Mike Carnegie to give Calgary a much needed cushion and fire up the 16,541 raucous fans at Scotiabank Saddledome. "In the third quarter, we just tried to wear them down," Dobbie said. "The breaks werent going our way, but I think we took a bite out of them. We worked hard, we got to the dirty errors and made their defence run a lot." Three minutes later, Dobbie rang a shot off the post that was knocked in on the rebound by Carnegie. "Weve got to be better, moving our feet and moving the ball, I dont think we did that all that well tonight," said Rochester coach Mike Hasen. "But give them credit, they put us in spots where we werent able to do that and (Mike) Poulin made those easy saves. Full value to them, they were good tonight." Poulin said the game was an example of every player in the line-up contributing. He was especially proud of how the team played defensively. "I gave up eight goals in a quarter against Edmonton a week ago so seven in a game -- Ill take it," said Poulin, who had 36 stops. "We did a fantastic job as a unit and it made my job a lot easier. When it was a one-goal game, I havent seen us more calm out there than we were tonight. "We kept our composure and we focused on the next shift." Curtis Dickson and Scott Ranger had two goals each for Calgary, annd Shawn Evans and Jeff Shattler also scored.ddddddddddddEvans added four assists for a game-high five points. Rochester, which has won the Champions Cup the last two years, got two goals from Craig Point and one apiece from Joe Walters, Cory Vitarelli, Stephen Keogh, Cody Jamieson and Johnny Powless. Game 2 goes next Saturday in Rochester with a 10-minute mini game to follow immediately after if the Knighthawks win to even up the series. "By finishing in first place, we earned this opportunity to go back now to our home barn where its a tough place to play," said Point. "We play good there, fans are nice and loud, just like it was tonight. Its our opportunity to go back and give it our all." Both teams required the mini game to win their respective division semifinals. After losing the opener to Buffalo, Rochester -- first in the East Division at 14-4 -- rallied at home to take Game 2 and also capture the mini-game 2-1 in overtime. Calgary -- second in the West during the regular season at 12-6 -- opened with a win at home, lost the second game in Edmonton, and rebounded to win the mini game 2-1. Trailing 4-1 in the second quarter, Rochester got back into the game on goals 1:17 apart from Powless and Point. However, despite multiple chances, they were unable to push one more past Poulin to square it up. Then, on a shift that fired up the crowd, Dobbie scored goals 34 seconds apart to restore a three-goal cushion at 6-3. "What a game our defence played. They won us this game and our offence will pick up the pace for next game and hopefully win that game for us," said Dobbie, the Roughnecks new leader with 62 career playoff points, passing Tracey Kelusky (60). While he looks forward to next weekend, he knows it isnt going to be easy. "Its a real tough buiding to play in, theyre first place for a reason," Dobbie said. "Its going to be a tough game but weve got to bring it, plain and simple. Weve got to be better next weekend than this weekend and that was our goal all season is to improve every game." Notes: Geoff Snider (knee) was unable to suit up for the Roughnecks. He was hurt three weeks ago in the opening game of the playoffs... Missing for Rochester was veteran Dan Dawson, who was shaken up on a heavy hit last Saturday... It was the first ever playoff meeting between the two teams... Rochester has won four NLL titles while Calgary has won two.
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