Draymond Green Shares Advice for Struggling Raptors as Losing Streak Drags On
The Toronto Raptors are not oblivious to their situation. It's bad. Five straight losses, four to teams they were favored against, and things are unraveling quickly. The offense remains among the league's worst, the defense hasn't been able to stop anyone lately, and there's a growing sense of frustration.
“I don’t think that we haven’t shown that this group of guys can play the way we want to play," said Raptors coach Nick Nurse after watching his team give up 126 points in a blowout loss to the Golden State Warriors.
The drumbeat for changes is getting louder. At 13-17, this team is closer to the bottom of the league than the top and the reverse standings have become as relevant as the actual standings. While four games separate the Raptors from the fifth-seeded Philadelphia 76ers, there are just 3.5 games between Toronto and the NBA's third-worst teams Houston and San Antonio who have about a 52% chance to land a top-four pick and a 14% chance at the No. 1 pick in a loaded 2023 NBA Draft class.
But Toronto need not look any further than across the hall Sunday night for an example of a team that's been exactly where the Raptors are right now. It was just over a month ago that the Warriors lost five straight games, only to respond with 12-9 record over the past 21 games and re-enter the conversation in the Western Conference. Heck, it wasn't all that long ago that Golden State was among the league's very worst teams, en route to a 15-50 season in 2019-20, before bouncing back for an NBA championship last year.
Yes, it helps to have Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green, but one losing streak doesn't mean turning the ship and blowing everything up.
“You’ve just got to stay committed to each other. You start hearing noise about trades and this guy shouldn’t be here and that guy shouldn’t be here but you have to stay committed to each other. You can’t let the outside noise dictate how you act or essentially your attitude towards the same or more importantly towards your teammates," said Draymond Green. "I think for us, you just always want to re-center yourself and re-center your focus to the game and if you do that, the game rewards you ... the talk stops, and you’re allowed to do what you set out to do which is enjoy playing basketball.”
But each passing game has made that tougher to do. If winning is a cure-all, losing does the opposite. It's killed Toronto's swagger, joy, and optimism.
"The reality is we're not playing well," said Pascal Siakam. "We gotta play better, that’s the main thing. We['ve] got to get wins and we['ve] got to figure out a way to get a win and then kind of build on it. Yeah, it's hard for me to try to analyze everybody but just us, we have to get a win."
Further Reading
Problems galore for Raptors whose slide continues with blowout loss to Warriors
Yuta Watanabe credits the Raptors for his success this season: 'It's because of them'
Kyrie Irving discusses watching Fred VanVleet: 'He's a winner. He's a champion'
