Toronto Raptors’ woes continue as they lose NBA Cup QF to Knicks — but don’t panic yet

It’s been the closest thing we’ve had to playoff basketball in Toronto for a little while, as the Toronto Raptors played in their very first NBA Cup knockout game Tuesday night against the Knicks. Winner moves on to play the Orlando Magic in Las Vegas next weekend, losers head to Miami for a regular schmegular game next week. This game also counts as a regular-season game against the Raptors ’ record.

The Raptors came into this one as underdogs. As much as they killed the NBA Cup group stage, winning every game and being the first team to clinch a spot in this round, it’s been weeks since those games. Now, RJ Barrett is out with a knee injury (that seems to be healing well, but he’s still not back on the court), and Immanuel Quickley was out with an illness.

The energy going in was interesting to say the least. It’s hard, being down two very key players in a game with high stakes. Plus, after being questionable, Karl Anthony Towns turned out to be available for the game, another tough reality for the Raptors. You’d hope they’d pull something together of course, but it seemed very David vs Goliath from the start.

Brandon Ingram took on the burden of those absences and came out of the gate to have a massive first quarter. He scored 17 points in the first frame alone, making 6 of his 7 field goal attempts and bringing the Raptors to a 39-35 lead. Talk about respecting the Cup. It didn’t end up being enough to hold off Jalen Brunson though, who scored 20 of his own points in the first quarter, shooting 7-9 from the field and 4-6 from three-point range.

Anyway, things went south from there. The Knicks spent the second quarter icing out the Raptors on the offensive end, and Karl Anthony Towns went to work on both ends.

At halftime, the Knicks led 69-52 over the Raptors.

As the season goes on, the Raptors’ woes are becoming more and more evident. Maybe one of the biggest is the need for another big man. It’s funny how it doesn’t seem like too long ago that the team didn’t have a true centre at all, and that’s why Poeltl was brought in. Yet, it’s becoming clearer with every game that Poeltl’s back is bothering him, and even with him playing on the court, the Raptors don’t have a clear backup big.

Of course, there is Mamukelashvili and Collin Murray-Boyles, but both play that big-4, small-5 stretch big kinda position, which is good, but doesn’t replace what Poeltl brings to the team when he is at his best. Poeltl’s physicality, length, and rim protection are helped along with his size, and he has a few inches on both of his back-ups.

That’s when Poeltl is healthy, too. Which he clearly isn’t at the moment. His problem is described as back tightness, and it seems like something that is either taking a long time to heal or is something he just can’t shake at all. Regardless, you can see he is having a hard time moving out there, which is hard when you’re trying to match up with the size, speed, and skill of someone like KAT.

As trade deadline season begins to open up on Dec 15 — that’s the date a lot of the trade holds on certain contracts are lifted — the Raptors’ need for a big man seems to be the theme of their trade talks. They have already been named in some rumours associated with Anthony Davis, who seems to want out of Dallas, but it’ll be interesting to see what routes the team pursues.

So far this NBA season, the Toronto Raptors have been living in two extremes: The extreme GOOD of the winning streak and that stretch, and the extreme BAD of the past week and a half. Neither extreme truly represents what this team really is. They aren’t a top-seed in the East, sure, but they also aren’t a lottery team. At least, they shouldn’t be. They have enough talent not to be.

Three things need to happen for the Toronto Raptors right now. The first is that they need to take some days off, which thankfully are coming now. They’ll have a good stretch now to reset before having to return to action, at least a few days off in a row. Which is more than they have had for weeks. The next thing they need to do is get this team back to a level of health that is sustainable — get RJ Barrett and Quickley back into the lineup, and assess how bad Poeltl’s back is. What is the baseline of this team? We don’t know that right now.

That’s the third factor — figure out the authentic ceiling of this team, and address the weaknesses. Shop around for a big at the deadline. The reality is, this isn’t a team that needs to tank; they need to adjust. They need to figure out their true identity. Which is hard to do when you’re injured and playing such a condensed schedule.

When you think about it, their successes this season have already been a huge improvement from last year. This team was barely a .500-level team a year ago, and even making the NBA Cup knockout round is an improvement. Anything above being the 12-seed is an improvement. That’s not what people want to hear, but it’s true.

Things never turned around for the Toronto Raptors in their debut NBA Cup knockout game. The Knicks ended up dominating the game after the first quarter, Brunson finishing with 35 points on the night. The final score was 117-101. Brandon Ingram had his own 31 points, a silver lining for the Raptors, shooting 11-18 from the field.

The Raptors now have 5 nights off before they play their make-up game against Miami, in Miami, on Monday. The team says they will not practice for two days now before getting back into the gym, for rest. They also only play 2 games in the next 10 days, a contrast to their condensed schedule over the past two weeks where they played 7 games in 11 days.