What’s left of Raptors drop 15th straight game

. . . the most decisive defeat in franchise history.

More than five months ago the Raptors and Minnesota Timberwolves opened the season by playing each other in Toronto. So much has happened since the Raptors surprisingly handed new head coach Darko Rajakovic his first win. Five of the nine Raptors who played at least 10 minutes in that game are no longer with the team, allstar Scottie Barnes and starting centre Jakob Poeltl have been injured for weeks now and Toronto has only won 22 of the next 75 games, while

Minnesota has the best record in the Western Conference following Wednesday’s 13385 obliteration in Minneapolis, the most decisive defeat in franchise history.

The Raptors came in as a 17.5-point underdog and that ended up being pretty generous, as the team got completely outclassed, making it 15 straight losses, two away from tying the franchise record. Anthony Edwards only needed to play three quarters to score 28 points, Naz Reid added 23 for the Wolves, who hit 20 three-pointers and shot 50 per cent from the field. Immanuel Quickley, Gradey dick and Javon Freemanliberty each had 16 for the Raptors, who never led again after scoring the first five points of the game.

Minnesota wasn’t even at full strength — big man Karlanthony Towns has been out for weeks and point guard Mike Conley was rested, but their absences didn’t matter in the slightest against such a weakened opponent. Reid replaced Towns and hit only one fewer three-pointer than all of the Raptors combined, while Toronto native Nickeil Alexander-walker was steady in place of Conley with 14 points.

Toronto couldn’t slow the Wolves from deep and was a complete disaster on offence, shooting just 26.7 per cent.

The NBA pedigrees of the limited number of Raptors available for the game fittingly harkened back to the dark old expansion days of the franchise, the last time a Toronto team had lost so many games in a row.