Gameday: Raptors @ Rockets, March 22

The Run Down

The Toronto Raptors have lost eight straight games for the first time since 2012, moving them to 11th place in the East, 2.5 games out of 10th. For the likes of Fred VanVleet, OG Anunoby, Pascal Siakam, and Norman Powell, it’s the longest losing streak of their careers.

On Monday night, they have a chance to right the ship against the only team in the NBA with a longer losing streak: The Houston Rockets, who became the eighth team in NBA history to lose 20 games in a row after Sunday’s 114-112 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

But it’s possible that the chance to right the ship has come and gone. Toronto desperately needed a win on Sunday night against the Cleveland Cavaliers, but went down by 22 at one point only to pull off another fake comeback and lose by 11. They needed one against the Jazz or the Pistons or the Hawks, all deflating losses. Maybe the Raptors pull out the win against the reeling Rockets and, like Lowry said after last night’s game, one win is truly all they need to start the momentum and go on a run. Or maybe the Rockets win and dig Toronto an even deeper grave; a new low for the lowest season in recent memory.

More likely, though, the winner of tonight’s matchup won’t matter much in the grand scheme of things. It’s more likely that the team on the other end of the court tonight, the Houston Rockets, will represent the model that Toronto needs to follow for the remainder of this season, selling off expiring veterans in order to get younger and more future-oriented. Which is not to say that Toronto is in for a long rebuild like Houston is; only that both teams were extremely competitive for the last five seasons, consistently challenging the best teams in their respective conferences, and that all that winning comes with a cost. Houston dealt James Harden and PJ Tucker to Eastern Conference competitors for a cache of young players and first-round picks. Toronto has a chance to do something similar in the days leading up to the March 25th trade deadline.

Just don’t tell VanVleet that. The Raptors’ point guard believes that your true character shows when you are losing, and he thinks the Raptors have a chance to right the ship tonight, even if that doesn’t mean making the playoffs or keeping the team together in the long run.

“What is your effort going to be?” asked VanVleet, rhetorically, after the game. “And if you play the whole game, and you end up sitting in the locker room after the game like we all do, or in the shower or whatever, and you try to think back to every play that you coulda did better, and if you feel like at least you gave it all, and you left your heart out there, then you go to sleep and wake up and you try to fight again tomorrow.”

The Raptors need to show some fight tonight in Houston. Siakam, who was benched in the fourth quarter on Sunday, needs to be more engaged on both ends. At this point in the season, it’s no longer about winning. It’s about pride.