Win over Celtics could go long way for struggling Raptors

After 37 games into the National Basketball Association season, the Toronto Raptors are still without a signature win.

With a 129-122 loss to the surging Houston Rockets on Sunday night, the Raptors have fallen to 1-9 against the league’s top five teams - the Golden State Warriors, San Antonio Spurs, Cleveland Cavaliers, Los Angeles Clippers and the Rockets - with their lone win coming against the Rockets in late November (Of note, the win against the Rockets came when Mike D’Antonio’s team was 9-5. Since the loss, the Rockets are 21-3).

More pressing for the Raptors, though, is a weekend of fourth-quarter collapses that saw comfortable leads turn into losses to the Rockets on Sunday and an overtime defeat at the hands of the eternal boogeyman Chicago Bulls (their 10^th straight loss to the Bulls) the night before.

In those two games, the Raptors were outscored by 23 in the final frame. Those losses were the first two this season that the Raptors incurred when leading after three quarters. Defensively, the team had no answers for Jimmy Butler (42 points with 32 of them coming in the second half) and James Harden (a triple-double to the tune of 40 points, 11 dimes and 10 rebounds) and wilted in a performance that fans haven’t been accustomed to at all this season.

Now 2-5 in their last seven, the Raptors face a tough test in the form of the Boston Celtics at the Air Canada Centre on Tuesday night. The team enjoyed a 4.5-game lead on the Brad Stevens-led Celtics just a fortnight ago.  With a win on Tuesday, the Celtics will pull level with the Raps atop the Atlantic Division.

This is the divisional fight the Raptors thought they’d be in for this season. The walk in the park to a fourth straight divisional title would be nonexistent with a retooled Celtics, featuring prized free agent signing Al Horford and backcourt dynamo Isaiah Thomas. Winners of four straight and 10 of 12, the Celtics head to Toronto for their second meeting of the season with the Raptors. Toronto prevailed in the first game 101-94 on December 9 in Boston, but leading scorer Thomas wasn’t in the Celtics’ lineup.

With the Raptors reeling after the weekend and a solution at the four still in flux with Patrick Patterson limited with a knee injury and Jared Sullinger still weeks away from his season debut, a fully healthy Celtics will be licking their chops at a chance to kick the Raptors while they’re down.

But the Raptors shouldn’t despair. Despite facing the sixth-toughest schedule in the NBA thus far, the team is still in first place in their division and firmly ensconced near the top of the Eastern Conference. Things will also get easier on the schedule front. Fresh off the heels of a six-game road trip (and nine of 12 on the road), the Raps see themselves in the midst of a four-game homestand and with a significantly easier slate of games in the near future.

Between now and the All-Star break (20 games) beginning for the Raptors after a February 15 game with the Charlotte Hornets, the Raptors’ upcoming opposition is a combined 69 games under .500. with 11 of those games at home (and three games against the woeful Brooklyn Nets). This is the perfect opportunity for Dwane Casey to correct the course of a team that – despite recent worrying signs – is far from spiraling out of control. A win over their nearest rivals would go a long way to quell fears of a prolonged dip and reestablish themselves as the divisional power.

As the Raps head to the break and then onto the February 23 trade deadline where they could be major players, the next several weeks will go a long way to determine the direction of the club as they jockey for playoff position.