2 reasons the Raptors shouldn’t panic (and 1 reason they should)

The Toronto Raptors have been consistently disappointing in the second half of the season. The squad has just two wins in that stretch, and both of them were against a Nets team that was playing without most of their stars. Sunday’s loss against the Cleveland Cavaliers was especially painful.

While they did fall to the Pistons and Magic at home, Toronto had a chance to knock off a quality opponent in primetime. Unfortunately, the 3-point shooting and bench energy completely let them down. Toronto lost by eight, but a few more timely 3-pointers could’ve helped them complete the comeback.

The Raptors will not find it very difficult to escape the play-in tournament, as there is a sizeable gap between Toronto and sixth-place Cleveland. Considering how they’ve struggled to string wins together lately, a healthy degree of pessimism is not unexpected or unwarranted.

While there are plenty of reasons to be a bit nervous about Toronto’s slow start in the second half, some optimistic sentiments are hanging around this team. Do they have the means to reverse their bad luck and get back into the postseason hunt?

Should the Toronto Raptors panic after a slow start?

Don’t Panic: Toronto isn’t playing at 100%

The Raptors have not played a fully healthy game since the start of the second half. Losing OG Anunoby due to a fractured finger was bad enough, but Fred VanVleet going down takes away an automatic 40 points every night. No wonder this team can’t shoot the ball from 3-point range.

In addition to those two stalwarts, recent standout Malachi Flynn will be sidelined with a hamstring injury. DJ Wilson was brought back to beef up the bench, but a knee injury forced Toronto to part ways with him and sign yet another 10-day player in Armoni Brooks.

The Toronto Raptors are not healthy at the moment.

The Raptors will likely get VanVleet back very shortly, while Flynn will be reevaluated next week. While losing them for the next few games could very well sting, they should be able to play with a semi-healthy lineup in the near future after a few weeks on the mend.

VanVleet is their preferred option when the game is on the line, and losing him has a major impact on their offense. With him and Anunoby returning to the starting lineup, the spacing issues that have plagued this team of late could finally be resolved in short order.