The Toronto Raptors have managed to keep scrapping out wins despite the fact that many of their biggest names have been impacted by some concerning injuries. Even contenders like the Miami Heat don’t have the juice to keep up with some of Toronto’s best bench players.
Thanks to an O.G. Anunoby masterclass and Scottie Barnes getting back in the swing of things, Toronto was able to pull off an impressive victory against the Miami Heat and move to 9-7 on the season. Considering the tough schedule they have had, that’s no small feat.
The Raptors went into the season expecting to be involved in a dogfight for a postseason spot. Not only was the Eastern Conference as a whole much deeper, but the Atlantic Division was hyped up by many as the best of its kind in the NBA. Boston is winning, but the rest of this group has been a mess.
With one-fifth of the season already in the books, the Raptors and their fans should be thrilled with the fact that they are having a better season than four of their most hated rivals. Even when the bench depth is being stretched to breaking point, Toronto’s situation compared to these three is favorable.
3 rivals the Toronto Raptors are outperforming
3. Detroit Pistons
Is it fair to call the Pistons a big rival when they’ve been bad for the last few years and aren’t in the same division? Considering the geographic proximity, the Dwane Casey factor looming over the meetings between these two, and the Cade Cunningham/Scottie Barnes comparisons, there’s some tension here.
With Cunningham struggling to be healthy early in this season, one of the game’s least efficient offensive players in Killian Hayes has taken many of his minutes. Detroit is currently 27th in points scored and 29th in points allowed, which could lead to some really hard questions about Casey’s job security.
The Toronto Raptors are doing much better than the Pistons.
While Casey is 9-4 against the Raptors in his Pistons career, Troy Weaver might not be thrilled with his results against the rest of the conference. His playoff appearances with the Raptors feel like they came a half-decade ago thanks to his Pistons losing.
The Raptors not only took over Detroit’s arena in the first meeting of the season between the two sides, but Dalano Banton (of all people) led the squad to a win. Cunningham is terrific, but he appears to be the only thing trending upward in the Motor City.
2. Philadelphia 76ers
If the season ended today, the mighty 76ers would be in the lottery, as their 7-7 record stands as a testament to what has been a very uneven and rocky road. With their hypothetical first-round pick not in their possession, things are starting to get very gnarly around Joel Embiid.
While Embiid and Tyrese Maxey have been excellent, James Harden remains sidelined due to an injury and Tobias Harris is doing a fantastic job of making his contract look worse by the day. With a bench that rivals Toronto’s in the lack of depth on display, this year hasn’t gone to plan for Daryl Morey.
The Toronto Raptors are surprisingly above the 76ers.
One of the more concerning aspects of this season is the fact that Doc Rivers’ job security has all but eroded. Fans have been upset with him for some time, and another early playoff exit could lead Morey to hand him his pink slip. Toronto should be thrilled about these potential developments.
While the Embiid and Maxey factors give the 76ers a higher ceiling in the short term, the Raptors have shown that the current iteration of this team can hang with Philly when the chips are down. This will be a tough squad to overtake, but this year has shown they are by no means impregnable.
1. Brooklyn Nets
With every day, the Nets seem to get more chaotic and messy. From Kyrie Irving promoting some very controversial and anti-Semitic material and Kevin Durant taking direct shots at his teammates, the fact that Brooklyn has won as much as they have seems like a minor miracle.
One of the main reasons the Raptors have less reason to be fearful over the Nets is the play of Ben Simmons. The former No. 1 overall pick scored more than 10 points for the first time in Brooklyn, and it came in a loss where the Nets surrendered 153 points to the Kings. The vibes could not be more off.
The Toronto Raptors are much more stable than the Nets.
It’s not hyperbole to say that the only literal reason that the Raptors should give the Nets a wide berth in any context is the fact that Durant is still one of the game’s best players and capable of taking the game over. If you remove that, the Jacque Vaughn spark appears to have dried up.
The Nets appear to have made a deal with the devil to land Durant and compete for titles, but the bill has come due and Brooklyn’s roster construction remains a mess. While they beat the Raptors earlier in the year, this confused franchise faces longer odds of doing it again.