Struggling Raptors Allow Rockets to Snap 20-Game Skid

These are dark times.

It wasn’t long ago that the Toronto Raptors were the talk of the NBA. The team that could seemingly create something out of nothing. In 2019 they won the NBA Finals without a single lottery pick and a roster full of developmental successes. This season, however, the whole appears to be less than the sum of its parts.

The Raptors are not this bad. They are not a team that should be losing 117-99 to the Houston Rockets, who snapped a 20-game losing streak on Monday night with the victory. They have plenty of excuses be it COVID-19 issues, rotational struggles, or the mere fact that they’re playing in Tampa this season. Whatever the problem is, it won’t go away.

The last time the Raptors were this bad Linas Kleiza, Aaron Gray, and Gary Forbes were suiting up for 15-plus minutes a night in Toronto. Those were the Raptors Dark Ages before the Rudy Gay trade that sparked the We The North Era and seven straight trips to the postseason. Back then, the Raptors were a sub-.400 team, finishing the season 23-43 en route to the eighth overall pick in the 2012 Draft. After Monday, Toronto is now 17-26 and a sub-.400 team for the time being.

With each passing game, it becomes harder and harder to see any reason to keep Kyle Lowry and Norman Powell around this season. The two have had incredible Raptors careers, exceeding anyone’s expectations, but this season hasn’t gone their way and Toronto’s playoff window has all but closed.

Toronto’s lone run came in the third quarter when Fred VanVleet played the role of Kyle Lowry in the third quarter, linking up with a bench unit to somehow spark a 13-2 run to pull the Raptors to within two just before the end of the frame. He alone scored eight of the 13 points, nailing a pair of 3-pointers including an above-the-break pull-up to make it 88-86.

Just like on Sunday night, Nurse rode the horses that got him there, going with the VanVleet, Paul Watson Jr., DeAndre’ Bembry, Malachi Flynn, and Chris Boucher lineup to start the fourth quarter. That was until Bembry strangely got ejected midway through the quarter, allowing the Rockets to extend their lead back up to 10 with a pair of technical foul shots.

“I think he drove baseline there, he thinks he got kinda hit right on the top of the head on that shot,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said. “He asked the ref, ‘you didn’t think that was a foul?’ and he said no, guess he just kinda kept talking a bit and got one, then got upset again so he got two [technicals].”

A few minutes later Chris Boucher took an ill-advised foul trying to block a 3-point shot and the Rockets put the game away.

“It’s a little bit of a Catch-22 with him,” Nurse said. He blocks a lot of 3-point shots but any time you foul a three-point shooter it seems like a really bad play and it usually is.”

Up Next: Denver Nuggets

Things are about to get a lot tougher for the Raptors starting on Wednesday when they return home to Tampa to take on the Denver Nuggets.