Your next read, on Toronto’s increasingly familiar late-game losses:
Meanwhile, Barrett most of all saw his game collapse in the clutch. He committed sloppy, needless turnovers, and he saw Edwards score on him in isolation. Rajakovic inserted Shead to close for Barrett with two minutes remaining. Toronto gave up offensive rebounds, after cleaning the glass well all night.
There were attempted heroics. Barnes pushed after an Edwards make, took on three Wolves, and dunked over them all. But ultimately, down three points with the ball in their hands, another needless turnover — this time by Shead — doomed the Raptors.
There is a pattern to Toronto losses. Controlling the game is not enough. When the offence runs dry, such issues last longer for the Raptors than they seem to for other teams. The Raptors couldn’t find a sustainable source of points for too long a stretch in the fourth quarter. Was it the lineup without Barnes and Ingram? Was it the turnovers from Barrett and Shead? Was it the inability of the team to create enough attempts from behind the arc? No matter the answer (and surely all of the above are valid answers), the Raptors have written a script over the last month that dictates the flow of losses. And against the Timberwolves, the Raptors followed it perfectly.
