The Toronto Raptors tried to lose a game on Tuesday night. Well, that might be strong. They certainly weren’t overly concerned with winning it, at least.
With 9 minutes, 43 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, the Raptors led the Orlando Magic by nine points. Coach Darko Rajaković pulled Immanuel Quickley, who signed a five-year contract in the offseason and had played just 26 minutes, subbing in rookie Jamal Shead.
Almost two minutes later, starting centre Jakob Poeltl exited with Orlando Robinson, who just converted from a two-way contract to a standard deal, entering. The Raptors led by 10. Eighteen seconds later, Scottie Barnes, having played 30 minutes, left.
None of those three players returned to the game. At least in Poeltl’s case, the Raptors could point to the centre being on a minutes restriction. Now, he had already exceeded the 23:37 he played on Tuesday in a game on Sunday, but forget about that. Finally, with 1:37 remaining in a two-possession game, RJ Barrett left the game with Jared Rhoden, who signed to a two-way contract earlier in the day, replacing him.
The Raptors still managed to win a game they seemed determined to lose, thanks to some incredible shotmaking from Rhoden and rookie Ja’Kobe Walter and some savvy calls from Rajaković. The organizational mandate was obvious, though: With the Raptors (20-42) two wins behind (or ahead?) of Philadelphia and Brooklyn, owning the fifth-worst record in the league, they needed to avoid going all out for a win. Lottery odds seemed more important than winning.
While some were quick to light up the Raptors for the strategy and make fun of them for winning when they were trying to lose — a reminder here that organizations strategize for the long term, but players and coaches generally do what they can to succeed when they’re on the floor — the derision shouldn’t be with the Raptors’ front office.
The league has to wear this. The NBA continues to incentivize losing in some situations. When those situations arise and teams respond accordingly, nobody should be surprised.
The Raptors have sent out several messages as they have gone into this final stretch of the season, the easiest part of their schedule: that they want to get their main players some time playing together at the end of a season dotted with injuries, that they want to put young players in bigger positions, that everything they do is geared toward winning, that hammering home their culture of hard work and incremental gains is paramount.
You could look at Tuesday night, take whatever part you’d like and pin it to Rajaković and the Raptors.
“This is what we talked about,” Rajaković said. “Us as an organization, it’s very important for young guys to be in those situations so they can learn. There is no better school than this, for them to be on the court, play in close games and to go through all of that.”
Sure — except that is not what they had done in the two previous games.
The Raptors’ defining on-court issue this season has been struggling down the stretch with their best available players on the floor. Before Tuesday, the Raptors had the third-worst winning percentage and net rating in games that have been within five points in the final five minutes or overtime.
Key players made massive mistakes in the last two games: Quickley’s foul on Coby White resulted in the Bulls’ game-tying four-point play in the final seconds in Chicago on Friday, leading to a Bulls win. The Raptors led by as many as 16 in the fourth quarter before losing in overtime.
On Sunday in Orlando, the Raptors led by 17 with 4:31 remaining, giving away all but two points of that lead. They held on to that final advantage only because Magic forward Franz Wagner blew a layup after Barnes didn’t switch to him when defending an out-of-bounds play.
The Raptors made those blunders while playing their best-available lineups, excluding the restricted Poeltl. What could be more important than those players, who figure to be part of the core for the foreseeable future, getting those late-game reps, trying to improve a weakness?
Perhaps that played a part in Chicago Sky guard and TSN analyst Kia Nurse criticizing the Raptors’ approach to Tuesday’s game. Louis Zatzman of Raptors Republic called the strategy embarrassing for the franchise, a half-measure tanking move that should not become the norm. The Raptors have already instituted some of the “soft tank” strategies I brought up earlier in the week, such as sitting bench sparkplug Chris Boucher. If they want to lose some games down the stretch, they will have to be more decisive, for sure.
GO DEEPER
Raptors can’t rest Scottie Barnes, but they have levers to pull in a soft tank
It is tough to hang this on the Raptors, though. With the trade for Brandon Ingram, they are trying to improve next season, which is a good thing, no matter how you feel about the particulars of the deal. The league would be in a better place, with more meaningful games, if fewer teams were willing to accept multiple lost seasons in a row.
However, the Ingram move makes getting a good draft pick this year even more important for the Raptors, considering that they don’t plan on returning to this spot in the standings. This is their big chance to add top-level, cost-controlled talent.
If the Raptors had won that game in Chicago, they would be just two games out of the final Play-In Tournament spot instead of four. The Raptors would have had a good chance at leapfrogging three teams and getting into the postseason. Even still, with their schedule, they have a chance, even if gaining five games on Chicago in the season’s final quarter seems unlikely (the Bulls own the tiebreaker with the Raptors). But, seriously, ask yourself which of these scenarios is better for the Raptors’ long-term vitality:
• Staying somewhere between fifth and eighth in the reverse standings increases their odds of moving up to the top four of the draft in the lottery while also, crucially, limiting how far they can fall.
• Or climbing into the 10th seed, needing to win two road games to advance to the playoffs — none of the eight 10th seeds have done that in the four years that the current Play-In format has been in place. If they fail, their lottery odds get worse. If they succeed, which would be possible since the other likely Play-In teams, Orlando, Miami and Atlanta, are all under .500, they would fall out of the lottery altogether, pick 15th in the draft and likely play a short first-round series against Cleveland.
Between this incident and the Dallas Mavericks back in 2023, when they sat Luka Dončić after fewer than 13 minutes of action in the penultimate game of the regular season to increase their odds of losing and keeping their top-10 protected pick, it is clear the Play-In is not an incentive to all teams.
At least it’s not a greater incentive than maximizing draft equity. The league has flattened draft lottery odds, giving the worst teams poorer odds than previously at landing a good pick. If that is your goal, though, it is still in your best interest to be as bad as possible, even if the odds have deteriorated.
If you don’t like it, try not to hate the team. Hate the league. Moreover, get comfortable with it. On Friday, the Raptors start a homestand that sandwiches games against Utah (15-46) and Philadelphia (21-40) with a pick they will lose unless it stays in the top six) around a back-to-back set against Washington (11-49). Hoo boy.
(Photo of Scottie Barnes and Franz Wagner: Mike Watters / Imagn Images)
