Raptors May Be Haunted by This Early Season Loss to the Nets When the Playoffs Roll Around

Is it too early to start looking ahead to playoff seeding?

Maybe. But it’s also not that hard to look at the current playoff picture and have a pretty good idea of how the Eastern Conference is going to play out. There’s the top five or six teams that seem virtually locked into playoff spots. After that, there are another three or so teams that are essentially shoo-ins for play-in contention.

Then there’s the Toronto Raptors and Brooklyn Nets who seem destined to battle it out all season for the 10th seed. Neither team has the kind of talent necessary to jump up the standings into the top six but neither team has much incentive to tank as they’re both without their own first-round pick.

And that’s what made Tuesday’s 115-103 loss to the Nets so important for Toronto. Sure, it’s early, but it wouldn’t be at all surprising if this loss came back to haunt the Raptors when the playoffs roll around.

What’s worse, the Nets didn’t even play particularly well. Heck, they didn’t even have their top scorer this season Cam Thomas, but the Raptors’ offense went silent down the stretch. Six straight missed field goals by Toronto coupled with some clutch three-pointers from Royce O’Neal sunk the Raptors in a game that could prove costly down the road.

In the NBA, the worst spot to be isn’t just in the middle, it’s just outside the play-in picture, not good enough to sell playoff hope but not bad enough to sell draft hope.

Both teams look anything like playoff teams in the early going Tuesday night. The Raptors started 1-for-9 from the field, only slightly worse than the Nets who couldn’t generate much of anything through the first five minutes. It was the kind of start that made you wonder why the league decided to even bother expanding the playoff picture.

But both teams did settle in. Pascal Siakam gave up on trying to nail three-pointers and instead began taking it to the Nets in the paint. Chris Boucher came off the bench and nailed a pair of three-pointers in the second quarter as Toronto took an early lead.

The Nets, though, responded. Spencer Dinwiddie got hot from behind the arc, nailing three straight three-pointers to end the first half, spurring Brooklyn on a 15-0 run heading into halftime.

It would have helped Toronto if they could hit a few more of their free throws but for the second game in a row, the Raptors were startlingly inept from the charity stripe. As a team, Toronto was 12-for-19 from the line.

Scottie Barnes provided the highlight of the night, a reverse slam dunk in transition that he turned into an and-1 when Dorian Finney-Smith fouled him going up for the dunk. It made up for a rough start from Barnes who didn’t come alive until the fourth quarter when he nailed a crucial three-pointer midway through the frame.

Dennis Schröder appeared to injure his left knee in the third quarter. He did return midway through the fourth, but the injury forced Toronto to turn to Malachi Flynn for extended minutes. After a rough start to the game, Flynn did nail a big three-pointer to tie the game up early in the fourth.

The bench kept the Raptors around to start the fourth thanks to a stellar performance from Boucher who nailed another three-pointer early in the frame as part of a 13-point performance. Gary Trent Jr. found his shot falling, connecting on 7 of 12 on the night for 15 points including a trio of crucial mid-range jumpers in the fourth.

The problem for Toronto was Mikal Bridges who didn’t have much of a problem beating OG Anunoby. He snaked around the Raptors defense for layups at the rim and nailed a crucial three-pointer to put the Nets ahead four late in the fourth. Bridges finished the game with 22 points, just shy of Dinwiddie’s 23, the game-high for the night.

Up Next: Phoenix Suns

The Raptors will be right back at it Wednesday night when they return home to take on Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns at 7:30 p.m. ET.