The Raptors’ nightly malaise is turning winnable games into blowout losses - Toronto Star

Toronto doesn't seem to be able to sustain its energy through all four quarters, with a seemingly inevitable lull every game.

Raptors centre Jakob Poeltl gets tangled up with Celtics centre Neemias Queta on Wednesday, when the Raptors lost 98-93 after blowing a 22-point lead.

The beginning of the game was poetry, with the ball swinging around the court, the open shots being knocked down, the Raptors defence at its pesky and disruptive best.

The rest of Wednesday’s 98-93 loss to the Boston Celtics had to be troubling and far more telling about where the Raptors are and where they hope to go.

Toronto scored 38 points and made 10 three-pointers in the first quarter. Toronto scored 32 points and four three-pointers in the entire second half. There were three turnovers in the first 24 minutes and nine in the second 24.

Good teams don’t play with a split-personality style. Good teams get ahead and stay ahead, and bury teams once they’ve got the first few shovels of dirt on them.

Maybe one day the Raptors will be that team. Maybe when everyone’s healthy and playing it won’t be a factor, but today it is a factor and given the current circumstances the inconsistency has to change .

“Down the stretch, (there were) a couple of turnovers that should not be happening. That was a problem on that fourth quarter,” coach Darko Rajakovic said after the game. “Up to that point, I thought we did a really good job of taking care of the ball. We finished the first half with only three turnovers but a couple of turnovers, a couple of missed shots, a couple of offensive rebounds that ended up in their possession … that was the outcome there.”

It was the outcome and there’s no denying the numbers about Wednesday that Rajakovic rattled off and their impact on the outcome.

But it’s the style and the feel that has to be troublesome to Rajakovic, to general manager Bobby Webster and to the players. There’s a sense of inevitability to almost every Toronto game, a lull they go through.

They blew a great first half in Denver last week with a miserable third quarter, and they started off so far down to the Lakers that a late rally wasn’t enough. It makes relatively easy wins harder than necessary, it makes close losses more difficult to accept, and it turns some winnable games into blowout losses.

They make shots, get defensive stops and it’s all rainbows and puppies. Then a bit of trouble arises and they often can’t stop it from becoming a deluge.

“We ended up shooting 37 per cent,” Rajakovic said of Wednesday’s loss. “You know, we’ve got to be able to play to our standard, make or miss shots.

“So obviously when we’re making shots, we’re feeling more energy, with more freedom, everything is easier. We’ve got to be able to sustain that.”

There are indeed outlier factors in play for the Raptors that are significant. But Kawhi Leonard’s going to miss at least four more games (a simple glance at the schedule shows that) and no one connected with the team will say when Scottie Barnes will play. Will that be Thursday in Philadelphia or one of Toronto’s four games next week? All Rajakovic said Wednesday is that Barnes is “in a phase now, reconditioning and every day picking up more work and just testing the groin.”

So it falls mainly to this group, with Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett and Jamal Shead at its head, to find a way to buck the trend of lulls in games that turns wins into losses. They are the leaders, the veterans, the ones who have to set the standard.

That’s the way good teams get to be good and stay that way: by taking control of games and not relinquishing them.

The exact opposite of what Toronto did Wednesday.

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Doug Smith is a sports reporter based in Toronto. Follow him on BlueSky: @smithraptorsbeat.bsky.social.