It's that time of year in Raptorland. The nightly injury report is getting suspiciously lengthy and you don't need be a conspiracy theorist to suggest a not-so-subtle tank has commenced.
Maybe the best thing that can happen is what happened in Denver on Monday night. The Raptors' 125-119 loss amounted to a valiant effort against the reigning champions, and it came with a thick vein of silver linings for the eternal optimists to mine.
R.J. Barrett's 26 points and nine assists suggested he's taking to heart head coach Darko Rajakovic's demands that the 23-year-old's penchant for maddeningly headdown drives morph more often into heads-up playmaking.
Gradey Dick's 17 points and seven assists, in the rookie's second straight start, continued to show signs that, though he's still a scrawny kid a few months removed from teenagehood, he's not merely a shooter. He's showing the outlines of a heady all-round player with the ability to drive and dish and finish.
Jontay Porter's career-best 4-for-7 shooting night from three-point range suggested the scrap-heap pickup has the potential to be an effective role player if more such evidence can be provided.
And, for all that, maybe the most important part was the result: Nothing beats a moral victory in a season where losing can't be considered a bad thing, Certainly it's a thing the Raptors are getting the hang of, having lost six of seven games since the mythical pizza party that followed the season's only three-game win streak.
And given that the Raptors went into Tuesday with the seventhworst record in the NBA- in a year they'll need some lottery luck to keep the top-six-protected pick they dealt to San Antonio last season-piling up more losses in the final 17 games only stands to improve the odds.
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Disgraceful behaviour on Parliament Hill
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