TORONTO \u2014 The most important game of the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Well, until the next one. Heading into Friday night\u2019s visit from the New Orleans Pelicans, the Toronto Raptors<\/a> only had 10 games left on the schedule. By default, every game is important for a Raptors team that could end up finishing anywhere from fifth to 10th\u00a0in an Eastern Conference playoff race where five teams were separated by one-and-a-half games before play Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n But here\u2019s why Friday\u2019s meeting with the Pelicans carried extra weight. The Raptors’ struggles against good teams have been well established at this point. They\u2019ve played teams in the top 10 of the league 25 times this season and are 5-20 against them.\u00a0<\/p>\n Conversely, their dominance against bad teams has been complete. Against the nine teams that invested more in losing than winning, the Raptors are 19-4.\u00a0<\/p>\n There are plenty of reasons or questions about the reasons why a team with nearly $160 million in salary tied up in five veteran starters needs to beat up on the weaklings to stay in the playoff mix, but that\u2019s for another day.<\/p>\n For now, the question is:<\/p>\n How many games on their remaining schedule can the Raptors realistically win, or will they need to win?\u00a0<\/p>\n Of the 10 games the Raptors had remaining headed into Friday, three of them are against the types of teams the Raptors only rarely beat: Detroit, Boston and New York, against which the Raptors are 1-8 so far. Three more of them are against teams the Raptors have no excuse not to beat: Sacramento, Memphis and Brooklyn.\u00a0<\/p>\n So, if form holds and the Raptors struggle against the quality teams and have the bad ones on lock, the Raptors will likely be 3-3 in those contests.\u00a0<\/p>\n Their fate likely hangs on their other four games.<\/p>\n Which brings us to the Pelicans, who are not going to make the playoffs or Play-In Tournament due to an awful, injury-riddled start.\u00a0But because they traded away their first-round pick to position themselves to draft Derik Queen last summer, they have no incentive to lose.\u00a0<\/p>\n And they haven\u2019t done much losing under interim head coach James Borrego. They are 15-13 since Jan. 23, including handling the Raptors pretty easily in New Orleans just over two weeks ago, which was memorialized by the image of Dejounte Murray standing over Jamal Shead<\/a> with his fists clenched after scoring a late bucket against Shead\u2019s high-pressure defence.\u00a0<\/p>\n So we throw them in the mix with the teams the Raptors have left to play, where the results could go either way. Against the 11 teams in the league (including the Pelicans) that are neither in the top 10 nor among the bottom nine, the Raptors were .500 (so far).\u00a0<\/p>\n Can they lock up a playoff spot by going 6-4 down the stretch, finishing at 46-36?\u00a0<\/p>\n Seems like a decent chance.\u00a0<\/p>\n If so, the Raptors probably needed to win three of their four games against the Pelicans, Magic \u2014 who the Raptors host on Sunday \u2014 and the Miami Heat, who the Raptors host for two games in the final week of the regular season.\u00a0<\/p>\n If they want to finish 47-35, they need to finish the regular season 7-3. That might require sweeping their four games against the middle-class teams on the schedule.\u00a0<\/p>\n The good news is it all remains on the table as the Raptors won 119-106 over New Orleans to improve their record to 41-32. With a loss by the Atlanta Hawks, the Raptors jumped into fifth place by a half game and are a full game ahead of Philadelphia, which is in seventh.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis was obviously an important game for us,\u201d said Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic. \u201cI mean, they\u2019re all important, but landing last night at 7 p.m. (from Los Angeles) and playing a late game tonight (more on that below), you need to bring a lot of energy.\u201d<\/p>\n After starting sluggishly and unimpressively in losses to Phoenix and the Clippers on the road trip, the Raptors didn\u2019t waste any time making themselves felt against the Pelicans, who lost to the Pistons on Thursday night in Detroit. The Raptors jumped out to a 23-10 lead after seven minutes with a shot diet any coach would love as Toronto pushed the ball up the floor with pace and passed it willingly and in good time. Of their first nine field goals, seven were assisted and six were either dunks or layups, the exception a pair of catch-and-shoot threes and a jumper by Scottie Barnes<\/a><\/p>\n Their defence was a big part of that as they held the Pelicans to under 40 per cent shooting in each of the first three quarters. And if fans were disappointed they didn\u2019t get a chance to vociferously boo Murray for the way he treated Shead \u2014 coming off an Achilles injury, Murray was rested on the second night of a back-to-back \u2014 they could take some satisfaction in the way the Raptors managed their business. Toronto picked up the win even as point guard Immanuel Quickley<\/a> missed his third straight game with plantar fasciitis in his right foot, and rookie big man Collin Murray-Boyles left the game at halftime with back spasms (they aren\u2019t thought to be serious).<\/p>\n The Raptors elected to bring Shead \u2014 Quickley\u2019s back-up and a starter the past two games \u2014 off the bench, which meant that Scottie Barnes was the de facto point guard, a role he has played before but not too often since Quickley (and Shead) joined the scene.<\/p>\n Barnes is pretty good at it. He finished with 23 points on 10-of-14 shooting to go with 12 assists, six rebounds, two steals and three blocked shots.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI just try to play fast, play with pace,\u201d said Barnes. \u201cMy mindset is to get the ball up the court as fast as possible and still have good offence, get into the next action.\u201d<\/p>\n His feel is elite. On one of the early possessions of the game, the rangy six-foot-seven Barnes was taking his big loping strides towards centre court when he started waving at Ja\u2019Kobe Walter to cut through to the opposite corner. When Walter (18 points) did as asked, his defender followed (after going four-of-10 from deep against New Orleans, Walter is now shooting 47.5 per cent from three since the all-star break, so that figured). But that Barnes-directed cut by Walter left a wide-open lane for RJ Barrett<\/a> (18 points on 7-of-14 shooting, four assists and six rebounds) to sprint into. Barnes then hit him in stride for an easy score. Most of Barnes\u2019 helpers were like that: just looking over the defence and making an easy pass at the right time.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFirst of all, he\u2019s a past-first player,\u201d Rajakovic said of Barnes.\u00a0“He likes to move, to pass, he likes to find his teammates in transition. He\u2019s scanning the floor and it really allows him with his size and his athletic ability to play over the top of the defence.\u201d<\/p>\n