One final loss finishes off Raptors’ season to forget

PACERS, HEADING TO PLAY-IN SET, TOO MUCH FOR UNDERMANNED TORONTO TO HANDLE

That’s a wrap, but don’t worry about the bow. The Raptors’ 26th season is in the books and if no one ever refers to it again over the course of time, that would probably be a blessing for those that took part.

Take it from Fred Vanvleet. The end couldn’t come soon enough.

“At this point, we’re just counting the minutes,” the always candid Vanvleet said. “There’s nothing else for us to do. It’s a final game, and I think we all kind of want it behind us . ... Just trying to get through it, trying to put in behind us, so that way the hope is that going forward we have something to look forward to. We have a lot of work to do this summer individually, collectively, to be better and hopefully get back to some type of normalcy in the next six months. We’ll see where we end up at the start of next season, but yeah, it’s good to get this one behind us as fast as possible.”

Vanvleet watched this one in street clothes, as did almost all of the Raptors’ regulars. Asked to sum up the year in one word, Vanvleet reluctantly settled on “inconsistency.”

“And that’s in schedule, that’s in the world, that’s in play, that’s in health, everything, emotions, everything,” he said. “There was no continuity whatsoever from start to finish. Humans are simple creatures. We need a schedule, we need to follow certain routines, and it was just up and down, and trying to catch up, we were playing catch up from the start of the season.”

Vanvleet is not an excuse-maker. Those are just the simple facts laid bare.

The season was rushed in the beginning as the Raptors sprinted to establish a base of some sort in Tampa when playing in Toronto became impossible. Abysmal to start the schedule, the team struggled to find its footing, and just when it looked like the Raptors of old might be coming around, COVID dealt the season it’s final killing blow.

It ended Sunday with a 125-113 loss against an Indiana Pacers club coached by former Raptors assistant Nate Bjorkgren and preparing for a date in the play-in tournament. Just one more gut punch for a team that absorbed so many this year.

No one saw this kind of end coming for the Raptors when the season began, but then we’ve been saying no one saw a lot of anything that transpired coming over this past year.

A late scratch of rookie Jalen Harris gave Toronto coach Nick Nurse the opportunity to throw out his single-season, franchise-highest 38th different starting lineup.

Trust us, Nurse would much rather have had the opportunity to send out the same lineup for all 72 games this year.

The Raptors end the year on a seven-game losing streak, some of it intentional as veterans who Naismith Memorial Basketball would play were either rested or left on the injured list out of an extreme sense of caution and clearly with an eye on the draft lottery.

In that sense the winddown to the season was a success as the team locked into the seventh-best odds for the draft lottery and young players like Malachi Flynn and Freddie Gillespie, and even Khem Birch and Harris to a lesser degree, got some invaluable experience with consistent minutes.

On the final day of the 2020-21 regular season, Flynn continued his fine run to the off-season with another career-best scoring night with 27 points, to go along with a five-assist game while Aron Baynes, likely playing for minutes elsewhere at this point, had his second strong game off the bench with a season-high 14 points and 10 rebounds.

Birch, the guy who came in and solidified that centre spot where Baynes failed, had 16 points and 14 rebounds in his final game of the season. He’s a free agent but clearly has a fondness for both the Raptors team and its head coach. Assuming the money is there, it’s a good bet he’s back.

Leading the Pacers was the familiar face of Mississauga, Ont., native Oshea Brissett, who had a career-best 31 points and nine rebounds. Brissett appears to have found a home in Indiana, which really has to be a little bittersweet for the Raptors, who let him go earlier in the year.

Next up for the team is a whole series of draft workouts as they lock in on the first lottery pick to come Toronto’s way since Jakob Poeltl arrived five years ago.