The Toronto Raptors are on pace for a franchise-best win total and, at worst, will finish with the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference. So it's a little weird that fatalism and the looming specter of past collapses still cloud so much of what would otherwise be a feel-good story.
But that's how it is for the Raps, who lost their third game in four tries, this one a 119-100 thumping at home against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Looking unsteady at a dangerous time, last year's ghosts feel more real than ever for the Raptors. And even if so many of the troubling signs from 2014-15's nosedive of a second half (which culminated in a first-round dismantling by the Washington Wizards) haven't been present, it feels reasonable to worry about an encore of the worst kind.
Toronto wore down last season, and Kyle Lowry, in particular, slipped in the second half.
So when the Thunder blitzed a seemingly fatigued Raptors team with a 27-11 fast break-point advantage Monday, it mattered because it felt familiar. Toronto seemed tired. And when L ...
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Article written by Grant Hughes