A Toronto Raptors superfan says he still has faith in his favourite team, despite an embarrassing Game 1 defeat at the hands of LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference Final.
LeBron scored 24 points and teammate Kyrie Irving put up 27 as the Cavs beat up on the Raptors 115-84 on Tuesday night, in the opening bout of their best-of seven series. Toronto's DeMar DeRozan led his team with 18 points.
After the loss, Raptors coach Dwane Casey was eager to move on.
"The score is embarrassing but again, it's just one game," he said in his post-game press conference.
But superfan Nav Bhatia says he's not embarrassed. Bhatia, who has been to every Raptors home game since 1995, says the team is in "bonus time" in Round 3, and shouldn't feel bad about Tuesday night's drubbing.
"We're playing with house money. We're not supposed to be there," Bhatia told CTV's Canada AM on Wednesday.
Bhatia flew to Cleveland and sat in courtside seats with NHLer P.K. Subban to take in Game 1, because he wanted to be there for what he calls an "historic" game. "This was the first time in 21 years that I was at Game 1 of Round 3," he said.
Bhatia pointed out that the Raptors lost Game 1 of the last two rounds, but still managed to win those, so he's not too concerned. "I believe this series is not over yet," he said. "Tomorrow will be a different game."
He also dismissed the notion that other NBA markets don't respect Toronto as a basketball city. In a recent CBS poll, for instance, the Raptors were the only team not named as a possibility to win the NBA championship. Instead, the Raptors were considered to fall under the "Other" category, which gave rise to the hashtag #WeTheOther in Toronto.
Bhatia said the Raptors have responded to their detractors with their strong play on the court. He pointed out that no one expected the Raptors to make it to the third round, "but we are there now."
"Rather than getting upset about it, we win over it and we show with our game," he said.
