1. The Basketball Gods
Toronto has gotten their fair share of good bounces this season, as they’ve taken on some elite teams without many of their best players. Now they’re starting to come and collect, and that’s led to the Raptors losing some of their impact players for the foreseeable future.
The injured Anunoby will likely be reevaluated within two weeks, and VanVleet missing five games already did some damage. Malachi Flynn has been playing very well lately, but now he’s been sidelined due to a hamstring problem. The confluence of circumstances between the bad injury luck and the starters regressing has handicapped this team
The Toronto Raptors aren’t fully healthy.
Getting blown out and losing to some of the lackluster competition they’ve lost to is embarrassing, but what else can you expect from a team that is replacing Anunoby and VanVleet with Khem Birch and Dalano Banton? Siakam and Scottie Barnes are doing everything they can to keep Toronto in these games.
Toronto will likely get their big names back as they try to make sure that they don’t miss out on potentially getting a home play-in game. However, if Anunoby’s injury is more serious than we thought, that’s another case of the vengeful finger of the sports deities coming down hard on the Raptors.