NBA
Edgar Chaput
April 5, 2024

NBA Odds, Prediction: Toronto Raptors to Break Franchise Losing Streak Record?

It can’t be easy being a Toronto Raptors fan these days. The Maple Leafs are once again heading to the Stanley Cup playoffs, hope springs eternal for the Blue Jays as a new MLB commences, and Toronto FC has a solid start to its MLS campaign. The Raptors? Well…

To that point, the Dinos are incurring the risk of breaking an unenviable record: the franchise’s all-time 17-game losing streak. That was back in 1997, the pre-Vince Carter glory years. Can the current crop of Raptors suffer the same fate, if not worse with an 18^th consecutive defeat? They’re on a 15-game slide as of Thursday, April 4 and are set as huge 15.5-point underdogs for their scheduled date with the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday.

Why the Raptors are so Bad

The 2019 championship run feels like a very long time ago. We reference that iconic campaign not only for simple comparison purposes but, for some key contextualization. There was a terrific line in a TSN article on the day living legend Kawhi Leonard left for the Los Angeles Clippers: “Won and Done.”

Well, flash forward four and a half seasons and basically nobody from that squad is left. Raptors great Kyle Lowry left a couple of years later, as did Serge Ibaka. In summer 2023 head coach Nick Nurse was given his marching orders (he’s now in Philadelphia with the 76ers) and Fred VanVleet, a breakout player in 2019, flew to Houston to join the Rockets. Then, a couple of blockbuster mid-season trades sent OG Anunoby to the New York Knicks and Pascal Siakam to the Indiana Pacers. That championship side is officially a thing of the past, save general manager Masai Ujiri.

How are current players meshing? Dubiously, one might argue. Kelly Olynyck, RJ Barret, Bruce Brown, Gary Trent Jr., Immanuel Quickley, Jakob Poeltl (out since early March), Gradey Dick (rookie), etc. At best it’s an “okay” group. At worst, it’s a cornucopia of guys, not a serious team. Arguably the club’s stalwart is Scottie Barnes, who was Rookie of the Year in 2022, but he hasn’t played in a month due to injury. Oh, Dennis Schroder was in Toronto for a few months this season, yet still leads the team with 6.1 assists.

So who, or what, are the Raptors in this latter stage of 2023-24? Frankly, a hodgepodge of solid, decent, and mediocre players who have not jelled together, partly because of fit, partly because of lack of time. Furthermore, the club is operating under first-time head coach Darko Rajakovic? Is he a good coach or a bad coach? It’s a bit early to draw conclusions but suffice it to say his career has started poorly.

The Raptors are 21^st in scoring (112.3 points per game), 16^th in field goal efficiency (47.2 per cent), 27^th in three-point shooting (34.8. per cent), 21^st in rebounding (42.6 per match), and 24^th in defence (118.7 points per contest). We could go on – like the bottom 10 rankings in opposition field goal efficiency and rebounding – but readers get the picture.

The Raptors’ Schedule and Doom Prediction

Now we play the guessing game. Toronto has fallen 15 times in a row. To tie the franchise record, they’d have to lose twice more, and three more to break it, if we want to call that breaking a record.

Friday’s game in Milwaukee doesn’t bode well. After losing to the lowly Memphis Grizzlies at home, even without Damian Lillard the hosts need to right their ship. Momentum is a fickle thing and Milwaukee needs it heading into the postseason. That would be loss number 16.

Here is where things get really interesting. The Raptors have an early evening date at home with the Washington Wizards on Sunday. Surely there is potential to win that contest. As bad as Toronto has been this season, Washington is even worse. Not only would that avoid tying the record, but it would do away with an even more frightening possibility:

Losing their 18^th straight at home to Pascal Siakam and the Indiana Pacers next Tuesday. No thank you.

After that comes an away match versus the Brooklyn Nets and back-to-back dates in Miami with the Heat. Brooklyn and Washington are the most likely candidates for Raps wins, although by the time they play the Nets it will already be too late to avoid the franchise’s current record of futility.