Ravaged Raptors roster loses big to Cavaliers

This is what a doomsday scenario looks like.

Marred by COVID-19 absences, the Toronto Raptors travelled to Cleveland on Boxing Day with four of their regular NBA roster players available and four 10-day contract signees who’d never been with the team before.

It wasn’t until a few hours before the game against the Cavaliers that the Raptors even confirmed they would have the league-minimum eight players available for Sunday’s game. But they did. And they played. And it wasn’t pretty.

Toronto fell just short of making the worst kind of history, losing to Cleveland 144-99 and almost matching its worst-ever franchise loss.

Sunday’s pre-game shootaround in Cleveland was the first time the group had even been on a basketball court at the same time. Unable to practice, much less go over any specific game plan, the eight Raptors took the floor in the hopes of maintaining some sense of togetherness.

The result was pure chaos.

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Led by Chris Boucher and Yuta Watanabe, the Raptors miraculously trailed by only one point after the first quarter. Watanabe’s double-double was the highlight of the night for Toronto, as he finished with 26 points and 13 rebounds over 37:10 minutes.

Recently signed forward D.J. Wilson also put up solid numbers, netting 15 points in 33:44 minutes.

From the second quarter onward, however, all hell broke loose.

The Cavs, who were missing three starters of their own due to COVID-19, took control of the game and put the nail in the coffin with a 47-point third period.

When all was said and done, Toronto hung on just enough to finish a point short of matching the worst loss in franchise history.

After the loss, there were those who chose to look ahead.

While others picked the route of questioning how a game like that was even allowed to go on in the first place.

Regardless of the result, the internet had a lot of love for the eight guys on the court for the Raptors on Sunday night.

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