Raptors Take Concerning Step Back With Potentially Playoff-Altering Loss to Wizards

The Toronto Raptors looked like the middling play-in team they've been all season, dropping a crucial game Thursday to the Washington Wizards

Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

This is what the Toronto Raptor wanted?

For weeks now this team has remained certain that they’ve been better than their record suggests. They refused to sell at the trade deadline, opting instead to augment their sub-.500 group. The defense was supposedly getting better. The offense, they said, would come eventually.

Maybe they are what their record says they are. Maybe, it turns out, they’re middling, a team far too inconsistent to be taken seriously as any sort of playoff threat. Just two days after a narrow victory over the fellow play-in hopeful Chicago Bulls, Toronto did its Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde act, falling 119-108 to the Washington Wizards in a crucial game Thursday.

In terms of positives, Toronto never gave up. Maybe that’s worth something. O.G. Anunoby and Jakob Poeltl kept the Raptors alive, trying to will Toronto out of a 19-point fourth-quarter hole. A 9-1 run early in the fourth by Anunoby kept the Raptors around, but, really, a 19-point deficit to a lackluster Wizards team is pretty unacceptable.

Any hope of a comeback died when Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet missed three straight three-pointers and Washington, ending Toronto’s run, and moving the Raptors into a way tie with the Wizards for the ninth seed in the conference.

It was one of those nights right from the jump. Toronto missed its first nine field goal attempts as Kyle Kuzma single-handedly put the Wizards up 10-0 before the first timeout.

Chris Boucher was virtually the only bright spot for Toronto early. The 30-year-old forward opened the second quarter with a catch-and-shoot three courtesy of a kick out from VanVleet. He followed it up moments later with a pump-fake-into-step-back-three-pointer he somehow nailed above the break, just his second pull-up three of the season. He kept the Raptors around early in the second quarter with eight points in the frame as the Wizards jumped ahead by 14.

In terms of strange coaching decisions, playing Jakob Poeltl just 10 minutes in the first half is definitely a weird one. He provided the only resistance the Wizards saw in the first half. Toronto made up for it in the second half, riding the Austrian big man down the stretch as he finished the night plus-nine in 32 minutes with 23 points and 13 rebounds. As for the minutes he didn’t play, well, Toronto was minus-20 in 16 minutes without Poeltl.

Fred VanVleet looked off for the second straight game since returning from his personal leave. He was fine working the pick-and-roll with Poeltl for stretches of the second half, but his shots just wouldn’t fall. He missed a pair of wide-open three-pointers, clanked a layup off the bottom of the rim, and was slow to get back on defense as he argued with the referee for a call, ending the game just 5-for-17 from the floor.

Anunoby led all Raptors scorers with 26 points including 14 in the fourth quarter in his first breakout performance since returning from injury following the All-Star break.

With the loss, Toronto falls a full game back of the Atlanta Hawks for the eighth seed in the conference. 

Up Next: Wizards

The stakes just grew even bigger for the Raptors who will face Washington again Saturday evening at 5 p.m. ET.