The predominant narrative surrounding the Toronto Raptors lately has been that they struggle against good teams while beating up on the bad ones.
The good news from tonight is that the Raptors broke free from that pattern. The bad news? Well, you know the bad news.
The New Orleans Pelicans, who entered the game with a 21-45 record, handed the Raptors a 122-111 loss — their first loss to a sub-.500 team since January 16.
To put it bluntly, this was bad. Really, really bad. And as TSN’s Josh Lewenberg
put it, the upstart 2013-14 Raptors vibes are starting to give way to darker, ultimately disappointing 2014-15 Raptors vibes.
The team is now 4-6 in their last 10 games. At 36-29, they find themselves in the East’s seventh seed, right back in the cursed play-in spot where they languished for a couple years before trading away/losing the Siakam/Anunoby/VanVleet core.
Some of the Raptors’ weaknesses were on full display in this one. They shot just 14/44 from behind the arc, missing a bunch of great looks down the stretch that would’ve kept them in it. They also lost the size matchup, and were outrebounded 62-48. They turned the ball over 11 times, which is solid — but there were some bad, fully avoidable ones in the mix thanks to some sloppy play.
This game had plenty of bad moments. Notably, there was Yves Missi’s monster block leading to a Zion Williamson windmill dunk that had us lamenting the Keshad Johnson/Jase Richardson dunk contests.
But perhaps the most disheartening moment of the loss was when Dejounte Murray punked Jamal Shead after he dropped him and hit a three to make it 119-101. Sure, the game was over by that point — but nobody other than Immanuel Quickley seemed remotely bothered by Murray taunting Shead so profusely. The Raptors have long been in desperate need of better shooters. But that moment accentuated the team’s need for some Dudes Who Are Nasty (that’s the scientific term).
This was not the return to New Orleans that Brandon Ingram had in mind. Ingram played a solid individual game, scoring 22 points along with six rebounds, five assists and four steals. Quickley was also carrying the team at times, and finished with 25 points on 8/14 shooting.
But overall this was an underperformance.
Scottie Barnes was held to just nine points, and returned to his shooting slump with a ⅙ three-point shooting night. He made no field goals in the second half.
The first half wasn’t great — you’d like to be beating the Pelicans — but the Raptors were down just 60-58 at the half.
Then the Pelicans blew the doors off. They capitalized on a Raptors scoring drought to take an eventual 88-70 lead, picking up an Ingram frustration technical foul along the way. Despite getting their heads bashed in within a couple minutes of the quarter starting, Darko Rajakovic did not call a timeout until the 4:47 remaining mark, by which point the Raptors were down by 15. Rajakovic went with Jamison Battle to try and get some shooting on the floor, but it took another couple minutes to stop the bleeding.
It also took the Raptors a full three quarters to match Bam Adebayo’s scoring total last night (83). (2005-06 Raptors, you are relieved of your duties!)
Thanks to a couple timely Shead threes and some defensive stops, the Raptors had closed the gap to 93-83 by the end of the quarter. With a quick flurry out of the fourth quarter gate — a Quickley three and an RJ Barrett fastbreak layup — they brought the lead down to 93-88. It seemed that the Raptors had weathered the storm and would have essentially a whole quarter to make up the five-point deficit.
But the jaws of defeat were strong.
The Pelicans benefited from a great shooting night, going 14/29 (48%) from beyond the arc. Murray, of punking Shead fame, played a great game, scoring 27 points with five boards and six assists. Trey Murphy scored 27 points and went ⅝ from three — some of which were more open than you’d like, thanks to some lagging defensive rotations. Herb Jones dropped 16 and shot 4/6 from three. Yves Missi was more physical than Jakob Poeltl, picking up 10 rebounds and two blocks in just 19 minutes.
There aren’t many excuses for this performance. The Raptors were about as healthy as it gets, with only rookie Collin Murray-Boyles missing from the rotation. And yes, they were on the second night of a back-to-back on the road. But this game was on the schedule as one that the team ought to win.
Instead, they were thoroughly embarrassed by one of the league’s worst teams — and now, the Raptors are on the outside of the playoff picture looking in.
