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The Raptors' Best Week Yet

Week 4 was a .500 week for Toronto which, for most teams, would fall somewhere between disappointing and underwhelming. For this Raptors squad, however, winning two games in a single week is borderline orgasmic. This is a team that had two wins total coming into week 4 and then, they string together two wins in a row, against Philadelphia and Brooklyn. Under normal circumstances, that would be a wildly impressive feat. In this case, however, Philly was without Kawhi and Gobert and the Nets were without Nance and Gallinari. But hey, wins are wins and the Raptors will take any win they can get.

The week started off very poorly against the Portland Trailblazers. Ultimately, Toronto only lost by 12, but it was never really that close. The Blazers led wire-to-wire, and were thoroughly in control. Both Olynyk and Willy fouled out, Willy doing so in just 18 minutes of play. On the plus side, though, Chandler pulled down 16 boards and Beal continued his great play, leading the team in scoring as he has in all but two games so far.

Game 2 was a matchup against the depleted 76ers. Beal was a monster, scoring 36 points on 14-27 shooting, going an amzing 8-14 from long range. Olynyk also contributed a very solid game, with 16 points, 14 rebounds, 2 steals and 3 blocked shots. Also, a surprising contribution from the young Bogdanovic with 13 points on 5-6 shooting (3-4 from 3) in 14 minutes. But again, this is a Philly team without Kawhi or Gobert. But Toronto doesn't care about details like that.

Next up was the Nets, who beat the Raptors by 10 in week 3 and held them to just 87 points. Toronto wanted payback and got solid contributions up and down the roster. The normally low-scoring Tyson Chandler contributed 20 points and 8 rebounds, and Jae Crowder who has been virtually invisible on offense, added 13 of his own. Beal was his usual self with 25 points. But it was Willy who put in the most impressive performance with 14 points and 15 rebounds in 23 minutes.

The final game of the week was tonight's barn burner against the Jazz. The Raptors struggled throughout this one, as Utah seemed to have an answer for every move Toronto made. The Jazz dominated the Raptors in rebounds (47-30). But it was really the fouls that killed them. Crowder racked up 4 fouls in 12 minutes, fouling out with 9:30 left in the 4th quarter. This was just as the Raptors had been mounting a furious comeback and had gotten the game to within 1. Shortly thereafter, they actually pulled ahead. But just a minute and a half later, Chandler fouled out. Despite that, the Raptors were (at the time) ahead by 3. And then, two and a half minutes later, Willy fouled out with Toronto up by two. The Raptors improbably continued to fight with both centers fouled out and no Jae Crowder, going up by as much as six. But the Jazz weren't about to give up and Toronto didn't have the tools to stop them at that point. Unfortunately, the Raptors came up just shy, losing by only one.

There were some incredible individual performances in this one. Bradley Beal had 42 points on 14-25 shooting, going 7-14 from 3. Kelly Olynyk had 3 steals to go with his 18 points and Rondo was the facilitator of the day with an impressive 18 assists. Before Willy fouled out, he contributed 16 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks.

All in all, the Raptors still aren't performing as well as they should be, but this week showed some glimmers of hope.

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