A dark night in Cleveland
Sunday’s 45-point rout marks Toronto’s second-worst loss ever
It went as expected, a group of strangers trying their best under impossible circumstances, showing short bursts but not nearly enough of them, succumbing eventually to the reality of the situation.
The Raptors — or more correctly, the eight players purporting to be the Raptors — were clobbered 14499 by the Cavaliers in Cleveland on Sunday, hardly a surprise for a group that met for the first time on the court about 90 minutes before tipoff.
They did their best; it wasn’t enough. The result was predictable.
And in these alarming, everchanging times it will go down as one of the dark moments in franchise history.
It was the Raptors’ second-worst loss ever by point differential. They gave up more points in the first half than they had in any game this season, and a roster that first met as a group late Sunday afternoon was eventually overmatched.
“We met them on (the) bus on the way to the arena,” Yuta Watanabe, who led the Raptors with 26 points, said of four new teammates.
“So, when we got here we went through a couple of plays. And usually in the meeting right before the game we watch the other team’s clips, but coach showed us our clips to make sure everybody (could see) what their game is like. So, that was a lot different from our usual game.”
The entire night was, the entire day was, and the entire last week has been — for the Raptors who played and the franchise as a whole.
“I went from OKC (with the G
League team) to Vegas to play in the (G League) showcase, to getting picked up, flying to Chicago to get ready to play the Bulls,” said D.J. Wilson, one of four Raptors on 10day COVID emergency contracts, who ended up playing 34 minutes with 15 points and eight rebounds Sunday.
“That game getting postponed, next day flying out to L.A. to spend Christmas Eve with my family, Christmas Day morning flying to Cleveland and the 26th, today, flying to Toronto (after the game).
“It’s been an eventful last four or five days. I’m appreciative of the opportunity and I wouldn’t want to pass up on it.”
Arguing whether or not the game should have been played is a waste of time and air. The point to debate that has come and gone — it
undoubtedly will be, by the NBA’s decision-making forces in the days and weeks and months to come — but the reality is that they had to play and they did, without wasting energy thinking about it.
“These leaders have to make decisions,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said before the game. “And you can’t complain about every decision they make. We’ve got to accept them and roll, accept them and go.
“We’re all wasting time and energy complaining about, ‘This wasn’t that way two days ago.’ Well, things are changing and this is a difficult time for leadership in lots of areas.
“Our leadership — the league leadership, political leadership, whatever, anybody that’s in any leadership role that comes out — says, ‘I think we should do this because that will give us the best chance to do whatever.’ So, I’m OK with it.”
Even having suffered through the loss, as disheartening and decisive as it was, there wasn’t a change in his attitude.
“We’ve got a big problem here — not just basketball, we’ve got a big problem — and … leaders make decisions and you try to ride with them, be positive and go do your job. And, OK, we had to take a pretty good loss tonight. We’ll bounce back. We’ll be OK.”
The eight Raptors were a disparate group, literally put together in one day.
Of the four regulars — Dalano Banton, Svi Mykhailiuk, Watanabe and Chris Boucher — none are regular starters when the Raptors have anything approximating a full roster.
The four others in the lineup — Wilson, Juwan Morgan, Tremont Waters and Daniel Oturu — were signed to 10-day, COVID-emergency contracts in the last few days, plucked from various G League teams and asked to play at an NBA level.
They did what they could, did it to the best of their ability and failed to win. There is no fault or blame to be assigned. It would have been an accomplishment of biblical proportions had they won.
“This is the first time all of us have been out there on the court … so, it was definitely a learning experience tonight,” said Wilson. “I think we handled as best as possible.
“The outcome was the outcome, but I think we can just do nothing but grow from this, and hopefully things come along and the good things can roll over into (Tuesday) when we play Philly.”