Toronto Raptors Roundtable Villain Week: All-time villain, biggest rival, and more
4) What random “Raptor Killer” sticks out to you?
Mike Bossetti
There have been a ton of “Raptor Killers” over the years, but no one sticks out more than Gerald Henderson.
Henderson scored double-digit points against the Raptors in 16 of 23 contests. From a player of his caliber, that’s remarkably consistent. Still, nothing will stick out more than the night Gerald freaking Henderson dropped a career-high 31 points on Toronto. 31 one points from Gerald Henderson. C’mon.
Zak McDonald:
People like to point out all of the years where we lost to the Cavaliers in the playoffs as a stretch of time where the Raptors couldn’t defeat LeBron James, when in actuality the Raptors were unable to defeat Channing Frye.
Channing Frye became a matchup nightmare for the Raptors every time they met the Cavs in the playoffs and at no other point in his career was Channing Frye a nightmare matchup for anyone. He had a superhuman ability to drain soul-crushing threes on the Raptors anytime we were able to get the ball out of LeBron James’ hands. Frye, not LeBron, was the real Raptor Killer.
Geethan Viswathasan:
Drew Gooden. Most of us remember all too well the Wizards sweeping the Raptors in the first round of the 2014-15 NBA Playoffs. In the opening round, the Raptors defense was baffled by Gooden hitting 7/14 from deep over the course of the series, as he provided a key stretch big to complement Marcin Gortat.
Specifically, Gooden’s block of Jonas Valanciunas in the first quarter of the third game, and the follow-up trailer three brought the Capital One Arena back to life, later setting up a game three win. This was the same win he closed out with a block of Lou Williams in the fourth.
Without this series performance from Gooden, you’ve got to think the Raptors win at least one game, in what turned out to be one of the most disappointing series in Raptors history.
Go Paolo:
Chicago Doug aka McBuckets. During his final three games against the Raptors as a Bull, he averaged 24 points on a scalding 62-percent from the field. In those three games, he hit 19 threes (an average of over 6 a game!) as the Bulls managed to beat the Raptors in two of them.
Thankfully, he got traded from the Bulls and has since been a non-factor against Toronto since. But the legend of Chicago Doug still haunts many Raptors fans to this day.