#toronto-raptors

#toronto-raptors

In most games against lower competition this season, Toronto has not let games slip away, this is a team that has beaten the teams they should beat and that should continue tonight as well. On paper this game looks like it should be a blowout in Toronto's favor, but Washington does have some microwave scorers that can keep things close if Toronto takes their foot off the gas.

This time, Joel Embiid was out and Poetl was back, and the intensity and pace of the game reignited an old rivalry. In the third, IQ splashed a 3-ball on his former Kentucky teammate and top-three league scorer Tyrese Maxey. This came after IQ ran a high pick-and-roll with Scottie, got downhill with a full head of steam, pitched the ball to Poeltl, and relocated. Maxey lost sight of him and was way too late to close out.

Even though the Raptors starting lineup had slowly crept back into respectability prior to tonight's tip off (they were a slight positive at +1.3 per 100 possessions, across 229 of them) it was a a return to a lesser form to kick things off. Unable to solve the Pacers, who were staying at home defensively, and slumping from downtown, the Raptors found themselves in a hole early.

For many, the start of the 2025-26 Toronto Raptors season was quickly showing a bleak view of their position in the Eastern Conference, as they couldn't match their strong season opener in the games that followed and instead went on a disappointing losing streak. If you think about that stretch, you also have to remember that Toronto was working on figuring out their roster chemistry,

The Toronto Raptors have been heavily scrutinized for their controversial approach to building the current rotation. Many have accused them of building a relatively redundant team, with players sharing similar strengths and weaknesses, and thus being unlikely to complement one another. As Toronto continues to exceed expectations early in 2025-26, however, star wing RJ Barrett explained what makes the team so dangerous: There's no player to ease up on.

Talk about a warm welcome. If by warm we mean being thrown right into the flames. The principles of a "trial by fire," which originated during medieval times, were simple: if a person was innocent or righteous, then divine intervention would seemingly protect them through the ordeal. Unfortunately for Murray-Boyles, the basketball gods won't be steping in to help, no matter how many times he gets burned by an NBA megastar during his rookie campaign.

Coming into this season, there was no doubt about what the starting lineup would be, there was no doubt about how Sandro Mamukelashvili would be used, and there was no doubt that the second unit would need a point guard, Jamal Shead, to handle the ball. Two big questions remained, I think, and they were: How much would Collin Murray-Boyles, the forward, play on this very forward-y team? Who will ascend to the #1 off-ball bench guard between Gradey Dick, Ochai Agbaji, Ja'Kobe Walter, and perhaps even... Jamison Battle?

Wilkens' basketball resume boasts a storied career, not only in his time as an active player, but also in the years that followed in head coaching roles. Wilkens is a nine-time NBA All-Star, recognized on both the NBA's 50th and 75th anniversary teams. His accolades only grew further, as I mentioned earlier, for his stellar efforts as a coach. Wilkens won an NBA championship as head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers in 1979.

That tagline, " Balanced attack," is exactly the way to put it. Balanced attack 🔥The @raptors are currently the ONLY team that has 3 players averaging over 20+ PPG! pic.twitter.com/IEjj87iW7e- NBA Canada (@NBACanada) November 5, 2025 For a while, the common belief was that the "BBQ" trio - referring to the initials of young stars RJ Barrett, Scottie Barnes, and Immanuel Quickley - would take the mantle in Toronto. But that sentiment largely shifted when the Raptors acquired Brandon Ingram.

In the first five games of the season, the young and inexperienced rotation - Sandro Mamukelashvili is the oldest at 26 with the most years played [4] - looked to already be an insolvable quandary. It was 16th in net rating, 21st in points scored, and as resistant as rotten fruit on the glass (25th in rebounding percentage). The lot of them looked lost, small, and, ineffectual. Only Jamison Battle had a positive plus/minus in their losses, and he played limited minutes in just two games.

I wrote a couple of pieces about ex-Raptors big man Precious Achiuwa over the offseason after I noticed he wasn't gaining any traction in free agency. That is, until news broke that he signed a non-guaranteed training camp deal with the Miami Heat, which I described as the Kyle Lowry trade coming full circle in a somewhat ironic way. However, that reunion in South Beach proved to be short-lived, as he was let go before the start of the 2025-26 season.

The Toronto Raptors have won three consecutive games against postseason-caliber teams and now sit at .500. With this in mind, the NBA should be buzzing about the potential of an unorthodox unit that seems to have the tools to exceed expectations. Unfortunately, ESPN isn't ready to believe in the Raptors. Instead, their recent power rankings revealed that Toronto is still viewed as a below-average team.