Raptors Have a Problem with Playing Down to their Competition

The Toronto Raptors overlook bad teams far too often and it's cost them repeatedly this season with embarrassing losses to the league's worst teams

Aaron Rose | Mar 5, 2022

John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports

What happened, Toronto Raptors coach Nick Nurse wondered Friday night.

The Raptors had been cruising heading into the All-Star break. They'd won nine of their last 11 games and suddenly thrust themselves squarely into the play-in and potentially playoff discussion in the East. Then everything stopped.

What's that saying, Nurse wondered aloud as he reached deep into his memory searching for his high school physics textbook.

"A body in motion tends to stay in motion and a body at rest tends to stay at rest?" he recalled. "Well, we had ours in motion pretty good."

The Raptors have hit a roadblock. One reason, as Nurse mentioned Friday, is the schedule. It hasn't been the "greatest," he said. On one hand, he's right. Since returning from the break, the Raptors have played three sets of back-to-backs. They've played six games in eight days and it's taken its toll. But at the same time, look at who they've played. They were blown out by the Atlanta Hawks and Charlotte Hornets in their first two games, two below .500 teams, they swept a two-game series against the Brooklyn Nets who were without all their best players, and, most recently, the Raptors have lost consecutive games to the league's second and third-worst teams.

Therein lies the problem. The Raptors don't wake up for bad teams.

Somehow Toronto has a 5-5 record this season against the top five teams in the league and the bottom five teams in the league. They've either knocked off or hung around with the league's very best, with wins over the Miami Heat and Memphis Grizzlies. And yet, they've repeatedly fallen flat against the Pistons, Magic, and Oklahoma City Thunder.

"It takes a lot to win in this league," Fred VanVleet said following Toronto's blowout loss to Charlotte. "We play young and dumb a lot and sometimes we get away with it and sometimes we don't."

In the NBA, everybody can compete and if you only come ready to play when the competition is up to your standards, you're going to feel it. Nobody can be overlooked. It's time to learn that.

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