Maybe you were worried, maybe even afraid. Maybe, if you have been scarred by the Toronto Raptors, you were gripped by a feeling that past failures might somehow become future ones, and you wanted to vomit like a broken fire hydrant. There has been, over the years, a lot of failure in this town. You could be excused if the moments — all the moments, in a scrawling line — were a terrifying thing.
Except this year is different, and it must have felt different to experience. The Toronto Raptors have, for so many years, been an exercise in frustration and humiliation.