It’s the time of the year we review the Toronto Raptors scary past.
It’s Halloween and it’s that time of the year to watch scary movies… actually, this time around we’re the ones in the scary movie with everything going on in the world right now. But that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun and look back on past Halloween performances from the Toronto Raptors.
Let’s begin on Halloween of 2016 when life wasn’t a scary movie and going to places like the movie theater or restaurant weren’t forbidden yet.
Toronto Raptors 105, Denver Nuggets 102
Best costume: Jusuf Nurkić in a Denver Nuggets jersey
Re-Watching this game you see a lot of weird things. You see the Denver Nuggets in their light blue jerseys, but nothing bats an eye more than seeing Nurkić being the more important player over Jokić. Nurkić was still their more important players during the early stages of the 2016-2017 season but it wouldn’t be long before Jokić was the first choice and Nurkić would be shipped to the Blazers mid-season.
Scariest Stat: 23 long mid-range shots, 16 three-point attempts for Raptors
Where DeRozan is, mid-range is. That is his bread and butter and there’s always going to be a lot of mid-range if he’s your leading scorer. Nowadays the Raptors have sort of turned into the anti-mid-range team, scoring the second least in that department. DeRozan’s shot selection would certainly be a scary thing for Nick Nurse if DeRozan was still on the team.
Players who didn’t see the full moon yet: Pascal Siakam
Full moons are when humans turn into werewolves. So, in this case, it’s when players have yet to reach their full potential. When you watch Siakam in this game, you get to see just how much he has developed as a player and glad he’s worked his butt off. Siakam here just seems like a lanky kid with no real skill set. A huge contrast to this year where he’s been an All-Star and All-NBA player.
The Toronto Raptors would ultimately win this game behind DeRozan’s 33 points and Lowry’s 29.