Raptors now have the worst record in the NBA
The Toronto Raptors are in a league of their own this season.
On Sunday night, the Raptors suffered their fourth straight loss in as many road games, dropping their record to 2-9. After going winless in Denver and Sacramento, as well as in two separate games against Los Angeles teams (Clippers and Lakers), Toronto is now in sole possession of the NBA’s worst record, sporting a winning percentage of just .182.
Sunday night’s game against the Lakers followed a pretty familiar script for Toronto: they kept things close early, even taking a 55-53 lead into halftime. But while he wasn’t the highest scorer on the evening, LeBron James put up a triple-double of 19 points, 10 rebounds, and 16 assists to lead the Lakers to a 123-103 victory.
“[LeBron] is just a player that sees the game with different eyes and is able to punish every little mistake or mismatch that he has there,” head coach Darko Rajakovic said following last night’s defeat.
And while not all their losses this season have been blowouts — five of the nine have been by six points or less — there have been a lot of mismatches and mistakes along the way for Toronto.
But depending on how you’re viewing the team’s goals for their 30th-anniversary campaign, their slow start to the season might not be the worst thing.
According to Tankathon.com, the team currently carries a 52.1% chance at the NBA’s top-four picks, with the other 47.9% meaning they’d fall out of the top four and end up picking fifth.
But Toronto’s been dealt a tough hand on the injury front as well. Only Gradey Dick and Jakob Poeltl have started all 11 games for the team this year, with Scottie Barnes, RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley, and Kelly Olynyk being the team veterans who have dealt with injury issues of varying degrees to begin the year.
“It’s hard to make any conclusions after 10, 11 games, early in the season,” Rajakovic added. “We’re still having guys coming back from injury, we still have guys that are sidelined. We’re really invested in developing young players that we have.”
The Raptors close out their five-game road trip against another opponent that is off to a similarly slow start to begin the year when they visit the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday night.
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