Norman Powell reflected on his time with the Toronto Raptors and his playoff losses to LeBron James.
Former Toronto Raptors’ swingman Norman Powell appeared on Paul George’s ‘Podcast P’ and spoke to his Clippers’ teammate about playing on the Toronto Raptors to start his career and running into LeBron James in the playoffs every single year.
“LeBron James. ‘Bron had our number every single year. My rookie year was the best series we had against him where we took him to Game 6. After that, it was night night. No matter what we did, he had a counter to that. He’s coming down the court and yelling the plays out from start to finish. ‘The ball is going to end up on JV’s side with this that or the other’ and you sitting down like, he told a teammate what to do. This dude’s mind is on a different level because he knows our stuff, he knows their stuff, and he’s calling audible to adjust to our defensive scheme.”
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Powell was drafted by the Raptors in 2015, which was the second season of LeBron’s stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers from 2014 to 2018. Powell got drafted to the most competitive Toronto team we had ever seen, as they were genuine contenders in the East, Unfortunately, they ran into LeBron every single year and would fail to qualify a round further.
James would leave the East after the 2018 Playoffs and join the Lakers. The Raptors instantly won the championship, as they had no LeBron to deal with, and made a big splash for a one-season rental of Kawhi Leonard. Powell and Kawhi will hope to win another title together and bring glory to the Clippers.
LeBron was the favorite to win most of the times he faced the Raptors in the playoffs, but people believed in the 2018 Raptors’ ability to beat James. They were the favorites on paper but would end up being single-handedly demolished by LeBron, ultimately getting swept as the No. 1 seed. Powell also reflected on that series.
“When LeBron hit the little buzzer beater with the right running and games us like that,” said Norm. “Me and Fred looked at each other in the locker room like ‘someone’s gonna go. We’re the number 1 seed and we got swept, that doesn’t happen.”
This series loss ended DeMar DeRozan’s long tenure as a Raptor, as the front office would trade him away for Kawhi Leonard that summer. All these experiences had to be worth it given they won the 2019 title, but it must’ve been maddening to improve your roster every year and lose to LeBron every single year.
James’ dominance of Toronto has ultimately only hurt DeMar DeRozan severely, who was primarily blamed for failing to beat LeBron’s Cavaliers. After the 2018 sweep, DeRozan knew LeBron had essentially ended his time on the Raptors.
“Game 3, my last year in Toronto, we were full court. He shot the one-legged floater and made it. That was it, that was like the end of my time in Toronto. We was down 3-0 and obviously, we lost Game 4. I was out the game and I just remember him shooting that one-legged floater and it going in and I was just like ‘shit, this is it here.’ That one hurt me for sure.”
The 2018 playoffs saw James average 34.0 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 11.3 assists as the Raptors were no match for him. LeBron was outscoring both DeRozan and Kyle Lowry combined at times, such was his prowess at this point. Most other Toronto players got to celebrate a championship in 2019, but DeRozan was celebrating being part of the worst San Antonio Spurs squad of the modern era at the time.
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