Game #5 Toronto Bay Raptors @ New Orleans Pelicans . 7:30 PM ET

[S.R.]

Look, before we freak out too much though, the top 4 in the East right now is Sixers/Magic/Pacers/Cavs. If the playoffs started today, the Bucks/Heat/Raptors would all not be participating.

It's still early and it's still a weird year. Looks like this will be more like the bubble than pre-bubble.

[The Claw Reborn]

Hate this moratorium period for a team to wait until they are able to trade their newly signed Free Agent...

Bad Timing can sometimes change the luck of a team to get better.

After everything that happened this off season...

Pascal is the collateral damage after Masai missing on Giannis....when it is all said and done.

YIKES.

[S.R.]

This hurts a bit ngl

[DogeLover1234]

Yeah, our young core doesn’t look ready to take on the veteran leadership roles.

As much as we lump everyone together, its all Siakam. Like if he picks uo his game everything else falls into place. He didnt get points, but the second quarter he was legit good, getting into the defense and finding cutters for open looks. You saw some good footwork, handles, etc. attacking off the bounce - and we went on a huge run. Its on him to figure his stuff out.

[The Great One]

So let's hold off till they play more games..yes I'm pi@@ed off 2..you are right they haven't been great,definitely not happy how there playing, but everyone gotta pull there weight and start playing together..absolutely Siakim,gotta do more,OG gotta do more,Freddy gotta do more,bench gotta do more..as for Lowry not touching him..that guy plays hard every game,they should be lucky they have him,bc if they didn't than I would say..yup..LOTTERY TEAM.

Lowry has been great all 5 games. OG has been rock solid ALL 5 games(still not sure what people expect from him). FVV had 3 great games and 2 stinkers. They're getting consistent solid production from Boucher. Powell is now starting to come around. And yet they're still 1-4. All 4 losses against average teams. Do they have another level they can go to? I doubt it.

[A.I]

Look, before we freak out too much though, the top 4 in the East right now is Sixers/Magic/Pacers/Cavs. If the playoffs started today, the Bucks/Heat/Raptors would all not be participating.

It's still early and it's still a weird year. Looks like this will be more like the bubble than pre-bubble.

The Nuggets are also surprisingly 1-4, the team that went to the Western Conference Finals last season. While the Raptors have been inconsistent, I'll wait for at least a quarter of the season before I make any conclusion.

A lot of the Raptors inconsistencies falls on Siakam. He plays well, the team will do a lot better. Pre-bubble Siakam is in there somewhere.

[The Claw Reborn]

This was the Siakam we all knew...

https://youtu.be/hfY0dsxusi0

[The Great One]

[The Claw Reborn]

https://youtu.be/hvpBXyl7Zfw

He likes the roar of the crowd.

[LJ2]

I put some of this loss on Nurse. He needed to get Thomas out there to spread the floor. NO just collapsed in on the paint every time we tried to drive leading to a lot of those turnovers. Our guards can't finish over that much size and length.

[GOLDBLUM]

Aight. Out of respect I'll cut down on bullshit

You do you brother. -- all respect.

I'm just saying, lol... I can recall literally dozens of times in-game when we get down and you're like, WE DONE. And so, so many of those times, they came storming right back, as is so often the case in basketball. I'm not even saying you're wrong for wanting to tank, (though I certainly don't.) I'm just noting how you, who makes pretty easily the best game threads this site has ever seen, (the jazz albums reign supreme,) exhibiting such great fandom, are also perhaps the top panicker here. lol

The rollercoaster of Raptor fandom.

I've been on the ride for a long time, as so many of us here have. Myself, I'm not ready to write my guys, these Raptors, off yet.

That said... they don't exactly look they're championship contenders at present, to put it mildly.

Hopefully they can tighten some stuff up here and put some w's together ... tough couple games ahead.

[planetmars]

Sucky loss again. Good for them in fighting back and taking over the lead with about a minute left. Felt they just needed one score to put it to bed.. but then they just kept doing dumb sh!t.

There is something mentally off with this team.. and it starts early even though they take the lead early. Can blame the refs, and they called everything.. but the way the Raps play defense it's easy to call fouls on them.

I think the Raps will figure it out and go on a nice little streak. But a few players need to play better.. it's not just on Siakam.

Few positives: Raps got into the paint quite a bit and got awarded with a lot of trips to the line themselves. That was nice. Fred had his best game of the season. Boucher has been a revelation this year too. And we don't have to play the Pelicans anymore

[slaw]

I think the Raps will figure it out and go on a nice little streak. But a few players need to play better.. it's not just on Siakam.

I don’t know. A lot of it is on Siakam.

Lowry looks tired already. FVV is playing in form now. OG is coming around. Boucher has been better than expected. Powell is scoring off the bench now.

If Siakam was even playing halfway decent they’d be 3-2 or 4-1. He is a huge drag when he’s out there and they are missing a lot of firepower if he doesn’t produce. Without him they are totally reliant on threes and it’s not working.

[Dvdvideo]

1. You guys who all say trade siakam, he sucks etc, are getting a bit trigger happy. He will be fine, given half a chance. He's just not comfortable right now, this could very easily change for lots of reasons.

2. I was screaming at the TV for lowry and Boucher to run pick and roll but got nothing close to it. Sometimes I really don't understand how or why our offensive execution is so bad I swear sometimes there are high school teams that execute better sets.

3. Bains is sucking so bad so far I'm wondering why len or Boucher isn't starting. Maybe he needs more time, but right now he looks passive on offense, slow on defense, and a step late on everything. He looks worse than Jonas on defense plus less of an offensive weapon so far.

4. You can say "you can't blame the refs" but my goodness, in this game, they really did make a lot of horrible calls.

5. I dont understand why the rookie point guard gets zero chance to play.......

6. If we had played a normal game the whole way instead of just jacking 3's the whole first quarter we would have won the game.

[Rudy Bargnani]

Last 2 minutes were not pretty:
-Lowry turnover
-Raps hold ball too long leading to Norm going to hoop and getting blocked.
—OG turnover.
—OG gets fouled going to hoop on an iso.
—Boucher dunks a Fred miss on a put back.

And in my view 2 Norm brain farts with fouling Ingram and then not fouling at the end.

Offence just doesn’t look crisp. If Siakam fouls out it’s reasonable for Norm to be on the floor but he makes some dumb decisions in the clutch.