Depleted and defeated
Pelicans hand banged-up team its fifth-biggest loss in franchise history
It is not a big ask from coach Darko Rajakovic.
He knows his Raptors are banged up and operating from a depth deficiency and winning cannot be expected many nights.
But he has standards, levels that are not negotiable.
“I think for the stage of our team where we’re at right now, the first thing we got to do is to learn how to fight, how to be competitive, how to find ways to stay in games and to learn at the same time from that experience,” he was saying before the Raptors faced the New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday night.
He was not pleased with what transpired at the Scotiabank Arena.
Beating the bigger, deeper, better Pelicans seemed almost impossible beforehand but the way the Raptors capitulated in a 139-98 loss, the fifth-biggest margin of defeat in franchise history, was galling.
Toronto gave up 42 points in the first quarter and scored only 17 in the second.
The Raptors’ best quarter was the third, and they were still outscored by seven points.
The Pelicans hit 24 three-pointers, the most ever by a Raptors opponent.
“They shot the ball really well tonight,” Rajakovic said. “And if they can shoot the ball like this every single night, probably they’re gonna win a championship.”
While it’s true that the Pelicans are better right now, it’s undeniable that the Raptors did not put up a hard enough fight to give themselves a chance.
There were some moments in the second half. Javon Freeman-Liberty, freed from a two-way contract, provided a few energetic moments in the third quarter and the Raptors paced with a bit of pace. But the Pelicans answered any three-minute burst with a three-pointer or another easy basket at the rim.
Zion Williamson, playing for the first time in Toronto since he led the Duke Blue Devils past the University of Toronto in 2018, unleashed a breakaway second-half dunk to excite the fans and finished with 16 points, eight assists and eight rebounds in about 26 minutes. Former Raptors centre Jonas Valanciunas made a couple of threepointers in a 10-point, 10-rebound effort. Trey Murphy exploded for 10 made three-pointers and had 34 points.
The Raptors, who lost Ochai Agbaji to left knee soreness at the half, got 17 points from Immanuel Quickley and 16 from Gary Trent Jr. RJ Barrett and Kelly Olynyk each had 15 before Toronto cleared the bench for the final six minutes.
Meanwhile, there was no clarity on either of the Raptors dealing with finger injuries. Jakob Poeltl was seeing specialists about his dislocated finger a day after Scottie Barnes had surgery on his fractured left pinky finger.
Rajakovic said the perfect situation would be for Barnes to play a couple of games near the end of the season but that’s not a certainty.
“Obviously everybody would like him to be able to come back and finish the season,” the coach said. “I know that he’s eager to come back and play but we just don’t have enough information at this time (to) plan anything like that.”