After hard-fought victories over the Miami Heat and Milwaukee Bucks in their previous encounters, the Toronto Raptors headed into the past weekend facing a back-to-back schedule against the Boston Celtics and Brooklyn Nets. While the Raptors didn't secure those two prior straight wins with absolute perfection, I was hopeful that Toronto could carry this positive momentum into December as they aim to close out 2025 on a high note.
However, unfortunately, this weekend revealed that the Raptors have a multitude of issues to resolve quickly, or else their problems will continue to weigh them down. Toronto is now on a two-game skid, losing to the Celtics on December 20 with a final score of 112-96, and falling to the Brooklyn Nets on December 21, with a final score of 81-96.
In the Celtics' loss, Toronto was without their starting center Jakob Poeltl, who continues to navigate a concerning back issue, and started Sandro Mamukelashvili in his place. Mamu had recently proven his scoring ability with a great performance in the victory over Milwaukee, and that scoring prowess continued in the game against the Celtics, where he scored 24 points and made six three-pointers.
However, the absence of a traditional big man hampered their interior presence, despite Mamukelashvili's and Brandon Ingram's strong offensive output (BI with a 24-point performance of his own). Toronto was out-rebounded by Boston by a wide margin, 55 to 37, and surrendered a significant number of points in the paint, as the Celtics scored 54 points inside compared to the Raptors' 32.
Without traditional bigs, Raptors find it tough to hold their ground
What made it even more painful was the burst of energy from Celtics reserves Luka Garza, Hugo Gonzalez, and Neemias Queta. Queta really stood out in his starting role, going a perfect 7-for-7 from the field. Garza tallied a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds — nine of those were offensive boards — while Gonzalez also posted a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds, nine of which were defensive.
And with all due respect to these gentlemen, we're not talking about league-dominant, world-beating players here. Hats off to the three for stepping up when their names were called, but Toronto simply had no answer to counter their bursts, and it showed. Mamu and Collin Murray-Boyles just won't suffice, nor is overloading Scottie Barnes's shoulders, and Toronto paid the price — big time.
Which leads into the subsequent affair with Brooklyn on December 21, another tough loss and arguably Toronto's most disappointing defeat, on par with their December 5 111-86 loss to the Charlotte Hornets. Toronto had Poeltl active in this game, but he was on the court for less than seven minutes before being ruled out for the rest of the game due to lingering back stiffness. While this loss could be more attributed to Toronto shooting a measly 37.2 percent from the field and 27.8 percent from three, Brooklyn still successfully out-rebounded the Raptors by a margin of 48 to 39.
This is a concerning turn of events for a team that, once again, had the life sucked out of them during this disheartening weekend schedule. The problem is so clear at this point that ignoring it or failing to tackle it properly would be nothing short of ignorance. Go out and find a guy with muscle and hustle, and perhaps these issues won't continue to be a nagging problem.