Raptors’ Rajakovic preaches patience after home opener blowout
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The Toronto Raptors suffered their worst season-opening loss in franchise history Wednesday night, being on the wrong end of a 136-106 blowout by the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Cavs shot nearly 20 percentage points higher than Toronto (58.6 to 41.9) and took advantage of the Raps’ lack of size, scoring 68 points in the paint compared to 38 from the home side.
Despite the disappointing display, head coach Darko Rajakovic cautioned that things would take time for the Raptors in a season previously labelled as rebuilding by team president and CEO Masai Ujiri.
“It’s Game 1 of the season. We definitely want to compete and win and try to do it every single night. But at the same time, we have to be patient with our young team and give those guys an opportunity to learn and bounce back,” he said.
“We’re not going to get down on ourselves, we’re a really connected group… we’ll learn from this,” Scottie Barnes said after scoring nine points on 3-of-14 shooting.
Barnes was also a bit more blunt than his head coach in describing the team’s performance.
“We just got an ass-whooping today. We’ve got to bounce back from this and get better from it.”
Canadian Chris Boucher, the longest-tenured Raptor having just begun his seventh season in Toronto, agreed with Barnes’ assessment.
“We got slapped in the face. It was probably good for us, especially as young as we are,” he said. “It’s not easy to win games, so I think it’s good for us to realize that the season has actually started, and we have to play a lot harder than we did tonight.”
Things don’t get easier for the Raps. In the next three games spread out over four nights beginning Friday, they take on the Philadelphia 76ers, Minnesota Timberwolves and Denver Nuggets, three teams that had a combined record last season of 160-86.
However, the 76ers could be without two of their biggest guns. Centre Joel Embiid has already been ruled out with a knee injury and Paul George is questionable after hyper-extending his knee in pre-season.
Quickley injured in loss
Toronto fell down 69-49 at halftime and things went from bad to worse when guard Immanuel Quickley suffered a right pelvic contusion did not come out for the second half. Quickley came down hard on his back after falling late in the second quarter and was replaced in the second half starting lineup by Davion Mitchell.
Rajakovic told reporters after the game that Quickley was sore and the team wanted to be cautious holding him out for the second half. He will be re-evaluated on Thursday.
The 25-year-old had 13 points in 4-of-9 shooting with four assists and two rebounds before departing.