Toronto Raptors Didn't Successfully Use 12:30 p.m. Start Time as Motivation

The Toronto Raptors dropped Game 1 of their series to Indiana, 100-90. Now, before mid-afternoon, they face the stark reality of an uphill climb and unpleasant deja vu. I repeat: they lost a basketball game before some people on the West Coast decided where to brunch.

This is important because the 12:30 p.m. EST start time was something Raptors coach Dwane Casey was focused on leading up to the game. He said the decision to have a franchise that has never won a seven-game playoff series play the first game of the day on Saturday was a sign of disrespect. He also vowed to use the outrageous slight as motivation.

" “We have all these 12:30 games and they look at us as the team north of the border that plays the early games when people out west are still asleep. We’ll use that as a little motivation too,” he said. “Evidently someone doesn’t feel like we’re deserving of that prime time spot. We have to use that as motivation.” … “We’re the No. 2 team in the Eastern Conference, we feel like we should have a premiere time slot,” Casey said. “The numbers may be different, I don’t know, for that time slot it may be good ratings. But we feel like we have an exciting team and we’ve earned the right by winning 56 games or whatever it is to be a primetime game. But again, we’re ready to play if they want to play at 6 o’clock in the morning.” "