CHICAGO—There may have been a sense of enthusiasm and optimism about the future with the Toronto Raptors early Tuesday, but it evaporated in another ugly loss for a rapidly declining team.
The good feelings about the needs addressed by the acquisition of Serge Ibaka vanished in a series of ghastly turnovers, listless execution and yet another loss to the Chicago Bulls.
A steady decline from about five minutes into the game until late in the third quarter marked a 105-94 loss at the United Center, the 11th straight time the Bulls have beaten the Raptors and Toronto’s 11th loss in its last 15 games this season.
Falling further out of even a home-court position for the first round of the playoffs — as if that would matter given the way they’ve been performing — the Raptors waltzed through a wretched first 30 minutes to allow the Bulls to take control.
There was an obligatory late-game run aided by some different lineups that at least provided a spark of energy, but the bad Toronto did in the first 30 minutes was far too much to overcome. The Raptors carved what was a 23-point deficit to five with about 90 seconds left, but Jimmy Butler iced the game from the free-throw line, preserving what was a well-earned Raptors defeat.
Doug McDermott led the Bulls with 20 points, Butler added 17, while Taj Gibson scored 14 on a night when the Bulls shot almost 50 per cent from the floor.
Kyle Lowry was a non-factor for about the first three quarters but finished with 22 points, while DeMar DeRozan struggled through an awful 5-for-19 shooting night and 18 points.
Patrick Patterson missed his fifth game with a bruised left knee, but he’s inching closer to a return and will be the one to make a decision when he’s back.
“He’s still not 100 per cent, but he has been medically cleared so it’s up to him,” Casey said Tuesday morning. “He has to feel his body . . . that is where it is right now.”
Jakob Poeltl started his second game in Patterson’s place, but with the imminent arrival of Ibaka, a power forward hole has been filled. Poeltl was replaced to start the second half by Norm Powell as the Raptors tried to change the tempo of the game — and their fortunes after a truly wretched first half. It didn’t work particularly well, as Chicago led by as many as 23 points in the third quarter.
Casey dug even further into his bag of lineup tricks late in the third quarter, using a tiny group of Lowry, Cory Joseph, DeRozan, Delon Wright and Lucas Nogueira. And the losing to the Bulls continues, as confounding at it is.
“I don’t know what it is about this team that gives us fits,” Casey said in the morning. “Matchups? It doesn’t matter who is coaching, who is playing, where it is. But we have to come in with our hard hats on and playing with a purpose and a sense of urgency, a pissed-off mentality, and all those things to get that taste out of our mouth of what we are going through. At some point we have to say ‘Enough!’ ”
The Toronto Star and thestar.com, each property of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, One Yonge Street, 4th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5E 1E6. You can unsubscribe at any time. Please contact us or see our privacy policy for more information.
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
