Loss to Pacers caps woeful season at home
Team finishes in NBA top five in attendance despite second-worst record ever in front of its fans
Only the deepest, darkest ugliness of the worst season ever has saved this group of Raptors from being the worst to play a full NBA year in Toronto.
A 140-123 loss to the Indiana Pacers sent the Raptors off on a threegame road trip to finish the regular season carting the carcass of a 14-27 home schedule.
Only once after the franchise was born has a Toronto team been as inept as this group, outside of the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season.
In 1997-98, a truly ghastly 16-66 record included a 9-32 home season spent between the then-SkyDome and the decrepit Maple Leaf Gardens.
That is the low; the14-27 mark this season is second. There was a 13-20 home record but only a season shortened to 66 games. Even in the COVID-shortened Tampa Tank season, the Raptors managed to win 16 “home” games.
Now, there are extenuating circumstances that landed the franchise where it is and there is no one person, event or instance on which to play blame.
No one could have seen Scottie Barnes and Jakob Poeltl, the team’s starting frontcourt, suffering season-ended finger injuries in backto-back games to start March.
No one could have seen the tragic personal losses dealt to RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley that knocked them out for varying lengths later in the month.
The trades of OG Anunoby, Precious Achiuwa, Pascal Siakam and Dennis Schroder were to a large extent expected but it wasn’t like Raptors management threw the season in the toilet. If they had really tried to gut the season, they wouldn’t have gotten proven NBAers in Barrett and Quickley and the somewhat emerging Ochai Agbaji.
But all that stuff happened and all it combined with one for ignominy.
The list of Raptors teams to with the worst home records over a season is a sports rogue’s gallery.
The very first team, with a roster that put “motley” in motley crew, finished 15-27 at the cavernous SkyDome and the dilapidated Gardens but at least it included a memorable win over the 72-10 Chicago Bulls.
The 2002-03 team finished the home portion of the year with seven healthy players and a workhorse guard, Rafer Alston, logging 47 minutes as the Raptors finished 1527 at home and 24-58 overall.
The 2005-06 team? Rafael Araujo played that home finale, had zero points, zero rebounds and only three personal fouls as the team dragged its way to 15 home wins and a 27-55 record.
And all those teams posted home records better than this one.
The record had at least an ancillary impact in the seats, too. It was not a precipitous decline but still a drop in attendance. A team that once boasted of 245 consecutive sellouts from November 2014 to December 2019 failed to reach capacity in nearly half its home games, 22 of 41.
The Raptors still averaged more than 19,600 fans per game at the Scotiabank Arena, played to more than 98 per cent capacity, according to baskeball-reference.com, and will finish in the top five in the league in attendance, but it was a drop nonetheless.
To the fans’ credit, a “Let’s go, Raptors” chant broke out with the team down 15 points and about seven minutes left.
“We played against several teams in this league that don’t have a great record and the stands are half empty and there’s not a lot of support that we feel every single night that we are here, and that means a lot to all of us,” Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic said.
“It's been a difficult season with injuries, trades with a lot of changes. I know one thing: that everybody in the organization is working really, really hard to turn this around.”
The loss unfolded as many have since the roster started unravelling last month. A good start with solid energy was reason for optimism, but the reality of the talent level caught up with them.
RJ Barrett led the Raptors with 23 points, Kelly Olynyk added 20 and spot starter Javon Freeman-Liberty, filling in for a resting Quickley, had a season-high 20. Former Raptor Pascal Siakam had 16 points and eight rebounds for the Pacers.
To the fans’ credit, a “Let’s go, Raptors” chant broke out with the team down 15 points and about seven minutes left