You cannot take away the Raptors' stellar 4-0 run in their four-game Western Conference schedule from January 20 to 25. Largely spearheaded by impressive Raptors standouts like Scottie Barnes and a blitzing Immanuel Quickley, the Raptors were able to topple the Golden State Warriors, Sacramento Kings, Portland Trail Blazers, and perhaps most impressive of them all, the Oklahoma City Thunder.
It was a great turnaround stretch for Toronto after dropping their last two prior games before it against the two Los Angeles squads — the Clippers and Lakers, respectively.
Toronto would have the luxury of returning to face some formidable Eastern Conference foes on the horizon, as they went up against the New York Knicks and Orlando Magic. Unfortunately, after this key two-game stretch, the Toronto Raptors have fallen to both the Knicks and the Magic. They couldn’t quite translate that West Coast magic into some East Coast flair.
On January 28, the Raptors lost to the Knicks, 119-92. Just two days later, on January 30, they were defeated by the Magic with a final score of 130-120.
Raptors handed two tough losses against Knicks and Magic in recent clashes
Mind you, these were two games where the Raptors led at halftime: 51-47 against the Knicks and 57-50 against the Magic. While Toronto appeared polished in the first half of the game, the second-half stats told a different story: a lopsided 72-41 deficit against New York and an 80-63 gap to Orlando. Also, what was once a 12-point lead for the Raptors against New York was completely flipped, as the Knicks eventually pulled ahead to a massive 27-point lead.
The Raptors were unable to find three-point shooting rhythm in either affair. While that's far from their calling card anyhow, the gap was very noticeable in both games. New York outshot Toronto from beyond the arc: 14-for-38 (36.8%) compared to 7-for-26 (26.9%). Likewise, Orlando outshot Toronto from distance by a mile: 17-for-34 (50%) compared to 7-for-28 (25%).
Against New York, aside from some stellar offensive explosions by Mikal Bridges and former Raptor OG Anunoby, the most notable Knicks stat that stood out — and overshadowed anything on the Raptors’ side — was Karl-Anthony Towns’ 22 rebounds (15 of them defensive boards). Although, we are talking about a Raptors team without a matchable big body to compare (still missing Jakob Poeltl), as Toronto's team-high rebounder was Scottie Barnes with ten boards.
While against the Magic, the Raptors just couldn't quite stop the scorching hot Desmond Bane in the second half. He went 8-for-9 from the field, including 5-for-5 from three, and racked up 21 points. To give a stellar Raptor his due, Brandon Ingram also had an incredible second half, going 8-for-14 from the field, 3-for-6 from deep, and totaling 22 points.
The only issue was that the second half mostly became the Brandon Ingram show, with no one else really stepping up on Toronto's end to help on the scoring front. Orlando benefited from second-half surges by Anthony Black and Paolo Banchero — though their contributions mostly came from free throws.
Toronto is a super talented squad (especially with their defensive effort), and they've shown they can get into a top winning rhythm this year. But the team is far from perfect. These two teams will be right there in the mix come playoff time, and no easy task if they're in Toronto's sights. The Raptors will need to review the film, reflect on how and where they can improve, and with the trade deadline approaching quickly, maybe Toronto can use it as an opportunity to address some of their flaws — like their glaring lack of size and proven scoring depth.
*All stats listed above courtesy of Basketball-Reference, unless otherwise noted