The Toronto Raptors began their two-day road trip on Nov. 21 against a much improved Orlando Magic team.
It did not go well for the Raptors as they trailed by as many as 27 points and ultimately lost 126-107.
If the Raptors want to climb back into the playoff mix for this season, they have to beat out the Magic in that race. This game showed that the Magic are clearly better than the Raptors at this moment.
The biggest disparity in Tuesday’s contest was the bench production.
The Raptors bench was outscored by the Magic 56-32, as Orlando had the fourth-highest scoring bench heading into the matchup.
Toronto has seemingly dug themselves an early hole in every game and sometimes they come back, but sometimes they don’t. The Raptors game against the Magic was the sixth time in the last eight games the Raptors have been down 16 or more.
Backing up a little bit further, Toronto has been down double-digits in nine of their first 14 games:
Raptors have been down by double-digits in 9 of 14 games this season.
– down by 15 or more in 7 of their last 9
– down by 20 or more in 5 of their last 8
– down after the first half in 5 of their last 6
– down by 10 or more after three quarters in 6 of their last 9— Keerthika Uthayakumar (@keerthikau) November 22, 2023
Fans would like to see this trend change sooner rather than later. With a new head coach in Darko Rajakovic, there have been some expected bumps, but nothing like this.
Two of the Raptors’ six wins this season have been 22 and 23-point comebacks, which is great, but the team can’t make it a habit of falling behind massively and then banking on a major comeback.
Luckily, there is still time for Toronto to turn it around, but the turnaround has to happen soon.
Next up for the Raptors
It doesn’t get much easier for the Raptors as they’re on the second night of a back-to-back against the No. 1 offense in the league.
Toronto takes on the Indiana Pacers, led by Tyrese Haliburton. He is coming off a performance in which he scored 37 points on nine made threes, while dishing out 16 assists in a win against the Atlanta Hawks.
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