Raptors news: Nick Nurse rips lack of “energy”, Fred VanVleet a father once again

Nick Nurse and the Toronto Raptors were hit with a major dose of reality in the last few days. Not only did they struggle to beat the Detroit Pistons, but the Cleveland Cavaliers absolutely wiped the floor with them in a way that was totally unbecoming for a team that won seven of their last eight games.

The Raptors blew a chance to move up to .500 with three straight games against play-in foes in the Bulls and Wizards next up on the docket. While Pascal Siakam was brilliant once again, no other Raptor stepped up.

In Toronto’s post-game media availability, Nurse put the loss on Toronto failing to match Cleveland’s energy and motivation. Playing without VanVleet obviously hurt, but the fact that both Gary Trent Jr. and OG Anunoby shot poorly on the offensive end knee-capped this team.

“[Cleveland] had us back on our heels on everything,” Nurse said. “It was a big difference in terms of energy and intensity…we came out good both halves, a short few minutes [in] both halves, but couldn’t sustain anything very much most of the night.”

More Raptors news

• Bleacher Report identified one burning question that every NBA team must answer. For the Raptors, the question was, “Where are we headed?” Like many Raptors fans, B/R is a bit confused about how Masai Ujiri intends to compete for a championship without making a seismic, fundamental roster change.
• Fred VanVleet has missed the last three games with the “personal reasons” designation, and the reasons have been revealed as fatherhood. VanVleet gave birth to his third child recently. Hopefully, he mirrors his past postseason success post-childbirth and leads the Raptors to some April success.

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NBA news

• The Los Angeles Lakers managed to come back from 27 points down to pull off a 111-108 win over the Dallas Mavericks. LeBron James and Anthony Davis combined for 56 points.
• The Atlanta Hawks officially hired Quin Snyder as their head coach. Snyder won 58% of his games with the Jazz and made the playoffs in six straight seasons, but he never made it to the Conference Finals.
• It was a great day to be a 6-6 point guard in the Southeast division. First, the Orlando Magic agreed to a deal with Michael Carter-Williams, a former rookie of the year who managed to reignite his flamed-out career with the Magic (slightly). Right after that, the Charlotte Hornets signed two-way guard Bryce McGowens to a four-year contract.