When Oedipus was very young, his father Laius heard the prophecy that his son would kill him. Fearing that future, he abandoned his son to die. Oedipus survived, but he grew up not knowing his parents. That had tragic consequences when he returned to Thebes, including the fulfilment of the prophecy. If Laius had never heard the prophecy, and Oedipus was raised by his true parents, perhaps he still would have killed his father in some other way, but perhaps not. Thus the prediction played a crucial role in its own coming true.
Many prophecies end up doing the same. It happens in Greek myth perhaps more than in real life, but it happens plenty in real life too. Don’t believe me? Just watch the Toronto Raptors.
The Raptors are playing tired, tentative basketball. Their performance right now can only be defined by a word in the French language — the vocabulary of existentialism. Malaise? Ennui? As a result, they are almost sure to make some trades at the deadline. An uninspiring win over the Houston Rockets does not undo the fact that they are a poor basketball team playing poor basketball. They are playing like a team that knows there are deals sure to be made. At this point, even if Toronto had turned it around — even if it had won convincingly over Houston, or swept its West Coast road trip — the fate could not be avoided.
It’s hard to know why the Raptors are playing tentative, tired basketball. The only fact is that they are. Certainly, the poor play is causing the trade rumours. But it’s also possible that the trade rumours are causing the poor play.
Take Gary Trent jr., for example. He has been enmeshed in trade rumours all season. He’s unlikely to remain a Raptor unless there’s a clear path to championship contention, and there simply isn’t one at the moment. And he virtually didn’t pass against the Rockets — the fastbreak 3-on-1 in which Trent keeps it for himself is becoming something of a trademark. He was the platonic ideal of himself in the first half, putting up 15 points with zero assists, zero rebounds, zero steals, zero blocks, zero turnovers, and zero free throws. All vibes. He finished with a stellar 29 points — as well as two assists and a rebound! — on only 15 shots. (The Rockets are in a worse way than the Raptors right now, and they declined to play defense of any sort.) But it looks like Trent, in a contract year, is out to get his at the moment, and it’s very difficult to blame him.
Speaking about players who called their own number, at one point towards the end of the second quarter, Fred VanVleet (also in a contract year) had taken more than a quarter of Toronto’s field goal attempts. And look, it worked against Houston. He drilled triple after triple, and he hit pull-up twos out of the pick and roll with ease. He attacked the rim and had some circus finishes. It was all very impressive. And VanVleet has been playing like a star for a while now. But by and large this season, the Raptors have not been at their best when VanVleet has been at his best. He scored a highly efficient 32 points against the Rockets, and Toronto only just managed a win while the 13-win Rockets were without their two dynamic starting guards.
Pascal Siakam remains unable to beat most defenders off the dribble at the moment. (He had one stutter dribble on a face up in the third quarter that looked like the lightning-quick Siakam of the early season, and I shot up in my seat.) But by and large, he looks exhausted, and it wouldn’t help his mental space that he was not named an All Star despite putting up preposterous numbers — for the second season in a row. The misery of the team is taking its toll in a variety of ways. Scottie Barnes was basically relegated to a 3-point shooting floor-spacer.
The Raptors are simply playing uninteresting, swampy basketball. Lots of zero-pass possessions. The defense is about as bad as its been since Kyle Lowry joined the franchise. The Rockets are a miserable basketball team and played without a point guard, and the Raptors were lucky Houston only scored 111 points. The Rockets attempted 21 threes, largely because they lacked any shooters on the floor, but they still shot an incredible 55.9 percent from 2-point range. Toronto’s defense was missing in action, just like it has been for weeks. Precious Achiuwa, who ordinarily is a defensive problem-solver, had trouble protecting the rim against Houston, stopping Alperen Sengun, or impacting the pick and roll.
There were sparks of excitement. There always are. Chris Boucher was exquisite off the bench, scoring 11 points and blocking three shots. He was great attacking the rim off the dribble and giving life to Toronto during stretches when the team went limp. Christian Koloko played winning minutes. And the shooting of VanVleet and Trent really shouldn’t be discounted; they scored wonderfully.
But the game was still yawn inducing. One of the least interesting wins I can remember, and the Raptors enjoyed an insurmountable talent gap and outscored their opponent from deep by 24 points. (Their only three-game winning streak of the season occurred when they played the Charlotte Hornets twice in a row at home.) They’re on a long road trip in the middle of a long season, but the Raptors right now look like they’re on their collective last gasp until the trade deadline can get here. If there was no trade deadline, if the Raptors maybe just had a couple more wins, perhaps things would be different. Maybe this game would have been uninteresting but still encouraging.
But none of that is the case. Toronto right now is facing the falling blade of the guillotine in the form of the trade deadline. And whether the Raptors are losing or beating the worst team in the league (missing its most dynamic players), they’re playing like they know what’s coming.
