Play-in tournament inevitable for Raptors after loss to Cleveland

TSN Raptors Reporter

Follow| Archive

TORONTO – Nick Nurse isn’t likely to forget about the Raptors’ last trip to Cleveland any time soon. That’s the kind of experience that tends to stick with a head coach, even one who’s seen an awful lot in his three decades around the sport.

It came on Boxing Day, just after Toronto’s roster was decimated by a team-wide COVID outbreak. With 10 regulars out of the lineup and four emergency signees joining the club ahead of the game, half of his eight available players met each other on the bus ride over to the arena.

“I do remember that, it was a lot of fun” Nurse said in jest, looking back at that night and what turned out to be a predictable 144-99 blowout loss to the Cavaliers.

With the Raptors back in Ohio for Sunday’s game – an important one in the very tight Eastern Conference standings – that loss in late December seemed relevant again. If nothing else, it brought some much-needed perspective.

This time, they only had to introduce one new teammate ahead of tip off.

They were already without a couple of key starters, Fred VanVleet and OG Anunoby, when they found out that emerging sophomore point guard Malachi Flynn would miss time due to a hamstring strain. So, with less than 24 hours to go before taking on the Cavs, they called Armoni Brooks, who was in Atlanta playing for the G League’s College Park Skyhawks, and told him to get on the first flight to Cleveland.

Toronto needed to cut the injured D.J. Wilson’s 10-day contract short to bring Brooks in, also on a 10-day. He arrived in time to go through shoot around with his new team Sunday morning, and even got in the game for five scoreless minutes to open the fourth quarter.

“We’ve been moving pieces around like crazy