The date is January 4, 2023, and the Toronto Raptors face the Milwaukee Bucks. The Raptors miss their first 15 field goal attempts in front of an increasingly silent Scotiabank Arena. Fred VanVleet is the only Raptor with a pulse for much of the night, finishing with 28 points, 12 assists, and 3 steals. He leads a furious comeback — a would-be historic comeback, even — that falls short in overtime. Toronto takes 28 more field goal attempts — the largest differential of the season — than their opponent but still lose in a bitter, hurtful way.
No, no. The date is January 17, 2023, against Milwaukee again. The Toronto Raptors allow the Bucks to score 44 points in the first quarter. VanVleet leads a massive comeback, scoring 39 points in the game. The Raptors pull within a single point in the fourth, as VanVleet scores nine in a row for Toronto, but the Raps eventually fall short. They attempt 15 more field goals than their opponent.
Or is it December 16, 2022? The Raptors lose to the Brooklyn Nets as they play a slovenly defensive game, culminating in a buzzer-beating triple conceded to Kyrie Irving over top of VanVleet, who finishes with 39 points. They take eight more shot attempts than their opponents.
Wait, no, I think it is February 1, 2023. The Raptors play a sluggish game against the Utah Jazz. Yes, that’s it. I’m sure of it. They fall behind 10-2 before your beer even arrives at the bar, and rookie Walker Kessler has four blocks by the time of the game’s first stoppage. The observant fan may well connect Kessler to the Raptors for the remainder of his career, as he was picked 22nd in the 2022 draft, and the Raptors traded their 20th pick in the same draft for Thad Young and the 33rd selection. They eventually selected Christian Koloko, who finishes with two points and two rebounds against the Jazz. Kessler ends up with 17 points, 14 rebounds, and seven blocks, doing much of his damage on the offensive glass against Young himself in the fourth quarter. The choices you make in history has a way of haunting the present.
Again, the Raptors crush their opponents in shot attempts, this time by 27. Again, they stage a comeback, taking the lead here and there in the second half, before fading down the stretch. Again VanVleet is, for large stretches, the only Raptor with a serious interest in the game. In the first quarter, with Pascal Siakam and Scottie Barnes combining to shoot 0-for-16 (!) inside the arc, VanVleet keeps the Raptors afloat. His layups in transition and pull-up twos out of the pick and roll are breaths of oxygen throughout the contest, albeit laboured and halting breaths. He finishes with 34 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists, raining triples on the Jazz in the fourth trying to fight back into the game. And again, the Raptors are outgunned. They can’t get what they need when they need it. Need a triple? Brick. Need a stop? Opponents score with ease.
This game has it all: The Raptors give up 27 points in corner triples to their opponents. They go through long stretches of inability to score and almost a 48-minute stretch of inability to stop their opponents. Sometimes Utah misses threes, and those are the moments when Toronto stages its comeback. But mostly, the defense is irrelevant. Toronto sells out to stop the star, and they give up career games to the supporting cast in the process. Oh, and they don’t even stop the star. It is, all told, Toronto’s game of the season.
This game is a singular manifestation of their identity. The Raptors trade opposing corner triples for transition points and extra possessions. They make that trade knowingly. They smash the offensive glass, collecting 25 (only two fewer than their defensive rebound total). They force 16 turnovers. But they are outscored by 21 points from behind the arc and allow their opponents to shoot 75 percent from inside the arc. They also give up 30 free throws, so the Raptors aren’t defending behind the arc or inside it, and they’re hacking opponents silly. That’s just bad defense in every possible variety of the phrase, outside of forcing turnovers. This game has the structure (poor defense), the narrative (failed comeback), and the disinterest from much of the roster that has defined the season. A singular distillation of all the problems, from the front office, to the coaching staff, to the players on the roster. We should be so lucky to have such a demonstrative moment.
There are other archetypes of Raptors losses this year, to be fair. There is the game in which they lead for much of the contest, while getting nothing from the bench, which means the starters play 40 minutes each and are gassed by the time the fourth arrives, and they slowly fall behind while missing their jumpers late. That happened recently, on January 30 against the Phoenix Suns. That happened in recent weeks against the Boston Celtics, and a version also took place (with some contributions from the bench) the game before against the Minnesota Timberwolves. There is the up-and-down massacre, such as Toronto’s loss to the Golden State Warriors. These Raptors sure know how to lose ’em.
Those archetypes are strong, without a doubt, but they doesn’t define this season. They lack this component, or that. The Jazz loss had it all.
Definitive doesn’t mean the best. It’s just what best captures the spirit of a thing. And this is the crux of the Raptors on full, gory display. It’s not pretty, and it’s not fun to watch: Basketball’s version of an open-casket funeral. And it’s happened time and again this season. As far as plotlines go, it’s so repetitive that Suits would be ashamed. The spirit of the Raptors is on life support. Well, no, the spirit of Toronto’s season is probably deceased at this point. Call this game the eulogy, then, or at the very least the epitaph.
Toronto Raptors
2022-2023
They tried hard, infrequently, and usually too late.
