Raptors' win streak something to build on entering off-season

TORONTO — The Toronto Raptors are on a winning streak.

It’s not much, granted. But their 130-122 win over the Washington Wizards was their second straight after Toronto unexpectedly snapped their 15-game losing streak — the second-longest in franchise history — with a win on the road against the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday. Toronto hadn’t won at Scotiabank Arena since March 3. For a team that has been through the depths the way the Raptors have this season, having won three straight games only once this year, not losing twice in a row is something.

As a bonus, since they started the night three wins behind the Memphis Grizzlies — the team the Raptors are hoping to finish behind to improve their odds of keeping their top-six protected draft pick — Toronto shouldn’t have to be concerned that their modest winning streak will come back to haunt them in any way, with just four games left on the schedule.

It turns out that having a solid representation of the smattering of proven NBA players you have under contract ready and available to play helps your cause. For the first time since Scottie Barnes broke his finger back on March 1, the Raptors had each of Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett, Gary Trent Jr., Kelly Olynyk and Bruce Brown available for the same game, and it showed.

"It was an adjustment," said Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic, who only had one starter available among eight healthy players when the Raptors lost by a franchise record 48 points at Minnesota last Wednesday. "From not having anybody to getting more guys, and at the same time, trying to find a rhythm."

It wasn’t an issue to start the game.

The Raptors jumped out to a blistering 42-17 start and looked dominant for a rare quarter of basketball. They helped the Wizards make eight turnovers — three of them on steals by Trent Jr. — that Toronto converted into 15 points. They held Washington to 5-of-17 shooting and connected on 59 per cent of their own shots, including five triples. All five of Toronto's starters had at least five points, and rookie Gradey Dick came off the bench and added eight of his own, knocking down a pair of quick baskets after opening his scoring with an acrobatic left-handed finish at full speed down the lane as he led his own fast break.

There was plenty to like.

"It was very positive, that whole first quarter. We were making shots and running in transition. I thought our defence really set up our offence, with our aggressiveness and active hands, we had 15 deflections,” said Rajakovic.

Toronto needed that big first-quarter lead as they had a hard time sustaining their momentum. The Wizards started the second quarter on a 21-2 run, cutting the Raptors lead to six points. The game remained relatively close after that with the Raptors in control but the Wizards lurking.

After a Dick three pushed the lead back to 20 with 8:44 to go in the fourth, Washington pulled back to within five with 25 seconds to play before Quickley put the game away with a pair of free throws.

The rangy point guard led Toronto with 31 points and 13 assists and was 10-of-10 from the line to follow up a 25-point, 11-rebound and nine-assist line in the win over Milwaukee.

Quickley was supported by Barrett (22 points, eight rebounds and seven assists), Olynyk (20 points, nine rebounds, five assists) and Trent Jr. (20 points, seven rebounds, three steals), while Dick had 13 points in 24 minutes off the bench before he left with a groin injury.

A two-game winning streak at this stage of the season can only be acknowledged so much, but for a team that has been trying to survive through a nearly winless March, it can’t be ignored.

"We lost the team 15 straight, but I still felt like we were doing the right things even though we weren't getting the results," said Quickley. "And sometimes that's what happens in sports or in life was don't get results but you're gonna keep putting in the work to get better. So that's what we've been doing."

At this point it has to be mentioned: the Raptors' wins came against a struggling Bucks team missing Giannis Antetokounmpo on Friday and the woeful Wizards, who fell to 15-64 on the season, the second lowest win total in the league.

So saying that, how good are the Toronto Raptors, anyway?

Or more properly: How bad are they, exactly?

Is there a world where the Raptors are maybe, just kind of, okay? Not terrible?

It’s hard to tell, honestly. In his first year as an NBA head coach Rajakovic has coached five different seasons, it seems like. There was the optimistic beginning that was weighed down somewhat as Pascal Siakam (remember him?) figured out his role in Rajakovic’s offence. It took a minute, but Toronto was 8-8 through 16 games, so it wasn’t so bad, in retrospect.

A December malaise followed and the Raptors were 4-12 after the Raptors ended the Detroit Pistons' NBA record 28-game losing streak. That coincided with the trade that sent OG Anunoby, Precious Achiuwa and Malachi Flynn to the Knicks for Quickley and Barrett. The new Raptors went 3-1 in their first four games together before Jakob Poeltl sprained his ankle. He missed 11 games and the Raptors went 2-9 while the big Austrian was out.

Halfway through that stretch the Raptors traded Siakam, bringing a rebuild into focus. But one last push followed and coincided with the return of Poeltl to the lineup, a 14-game stretch in which Toronto went 6-8. Again, not great, but not terrible.

Then disaster. First Barnes broke his hand against the Golden State Warriors and then the next game Poeltl dislocated his finger.

Heading into Sunday’s matchup against the Wizards, Toronto was 3-24 without Poeltl in the lineup and 2-15 without Barnes playing. Sunday was the second time the Raptors had won a game with both of them out.

That is the real problem when figuring out how good the Raptors may or may not actually be and how quickly they might be able to rebound from awful to respectable.

An optimist might point to how much tumult the Raptors have endured — the injury woes that hit when Barnes and Poeltl got hurt were compounded when Quickley and Barrett missed six games and eight games for personal reasons — and argue that in the handful of games they’ve had with their ideal roster, they’ve been okay. Remember the eight-game stretch they had when they were healthy after the trade deadline?

No?

Well it happened, and they went 4-4. They only had one win over a .500 team, mind you, but they beat some teams you would expect them to beat — Houston, Brooklyn, Atlanta — if the goal is to be at least respectable.

It’s not much, but it’s something. The Raptors haven't provided much reason for optimism this season, so take it where you can find it, I guess.

"A lot of teams would quit in this situation, you know the adversity can, you know, make some guys crumble and some teams, some coaches crumble, and the other people rise to that occasion," said Quickley. "[That we didn’t] shows a lot about this team coaching staff, the whole organization… I feel like you know, we know we’re not where we want to be yet, but maybe we'll come back to this interview one day and we'll see what we get from there."