The Raptors’ loss to the Celtics was a trainwreck and a microcosm of the 2026-27 season

It is very early, and there is still time for things to change, but at this point, the Toronto Raptors are throwing away the 2026-27 season. Their veterans are performing far below expectations. Their youngsters who were supposed to take jumps haven’t really done so. There have been flashes of life here and there, but by and large the Raptors have been exactly what their record says: a sub-.500 team that can beat on bad teams and gets spanked by good ones. 

Toronto’s loss to the Boston Celtics was a perfect microcosm of the team’s issues to this point. 

First, the good: Toronto made ten triples in the first quarter! Its lead ballooned and ballooned as Jamal Shead and RJ Barrett had their way with Boston’s point-of-attack defence. Allen Graves had some offensive rebounds. Okay, that’s the good. Fun recap.

Things soured. There were seven-point plays, phantom offensive fouls, long cold stretches on offence. Much went poorly for Toronto to finish the second quarter and open the third. Toronto’s 20-plus-point lead evaporated, as Boston led midway through the third quarter. So, all was square. Hot shooting was undone by silly mistakes. Darko Rajakovic threw away his challenge, again. No, he didn’t just waste it; he actively gave Boston points, as the play turned into a proximate foul on Allen Graves rather than simply being out of bounds off of Graves, giving Boston free throws. Toronto desperately could have used its challenge to close the game, as several 50-50 calls went against the Raptors. 

Regardless, it wasn’t Rajakovic who lost the game. No, it was mostly Immanuel Quickley and Barrett. When the going got tough for Toronto, the two seized the means of offensive production and proceeded to run Toronto’s pristine factories into the ground. Quickley and Barrett launched midrange fadeaways after zero-pass possessions. They couldn’t get off the ball and couldn’t turn the corner and couldn’t do much of anything other than waste clock and miss shots. (I came here to lose basketball games and chew gum, and I’m all out of gum.) At one point, Quickley turned down an open triple, pump faked so much you would have thought the controller was unplugged, drove, found he had nowhere to go, reset, tried to attack with the shot clock down, and promptly turned over the ball. 

When the dust settled on their shared struggles, the two combined for 23 points on 30 shots, and that almost overstates their impact in the second half. Outside of a few isolation stands from Barrett, their defensive output was poor. Quickley — usually a stout defender — was jumpy on his closeouts and teflon on the ball. Boston closed the game by putting the duo into actions and letting Tatum attack. 

Every bench player who appeared in the game had a positive plus-minus for Toronto. Barrett had the team’s worst mark at minus-22 in a five-point loss. Sometimes the numbers tell the truth. Multiple times, the Raptors had moments that looked like the game was over, and the bench found ways to scratch and claw back into the lead. That effort was chucked in the can like your toddler’s favourite artwork by an unthinking parent.

While Shead was excellent at creating and hitting the paint, as he has been for a few games running, he missed some completely uncontested triples that would have given Toronto the game. He had enough time on those looks to boil a kettle and decide whether he wanted peppermint or orange pekoe. Murray-Boyles was in foul trouble for the night, again, and his scoring attempts were wayward, whether from deep or as layup attempts. (Again.) At one point, Shead drove and found Murray-Boyles rolling, who missed the layup. Toronto recovered the ball, and Shead caught the ball in the dunker spot, again finding Murray-Boyles storming to the rim. He bobbled the pass, leading to a turnover and Boston points the other way. 

Murray-Boyles is now shooting below 50 percent from the field, almost a 10-percentage-point drop from last season. Scottie Barnes, tasked with more creation with Toronto banged up, was out against Boston but is enjoying a career worst performance in terms of true-shooting percentage on the season. 

Boston actually played quite poorly. The Raptors made 10 first-quarter triples. Toronto found a way to lose anyway. 

Kawhi Leonard, the supposed savior, has been absent. He certainly, the team insists, is not injured. He has been ramping up and reconditioning and preparing and readying himself for longer stretches than Goku. The team’s last press release was, in its entirety: “The Toronto Raptors announced Tuesday that forward Kawhi Leonard is continuing the reconditioning process after treatment to address left knee swelling. An update will be provided in a week.”

Good thing the Raptors traded for him, re-signed him, and bet the farm on him. The thing is, this season is in many ways the team’s best shot. The Raptors’ financial crunch will only worsen when Jakob Poeltl’s new contract begins (it hasn’t yet begun!), which means any additional flexibility that comes from a new draft pick coming into play is likely outweighed by the financial decisions of this or previous management teams. 

Poeltl has actually been rounding into form. He has strung together four strong games in his last five after quite a worthwhile output against Boston. He is recording chasedown blocks in transition and winning rebounds in crowds and doing just enough to help his team. But for how long will that last? Surely, things will swing back into Toronto’s favour at some point. Barnes will return, and he will be more efficient, and Murray-Boyles will stop fouling the bejesus out of everyone with the ball, and Barrett might make a triple eventually, and Leonard will have to play another game at some point. (Right…?) 

But will Poeltl still be playing well then? Will Leonard be able to string together multiple weeks of health, let alone months? Will Rajakovic be able to draw up out-of-timeout plays that don’t result in turnovers? Will he have the chutzpah (that he didn’t have against Boston) to actually bench highly paid team leaders who are harming the team’s chances to win? Will Toronto find its way to hot shooting … ever again?

Things have been bleak for the Raptors. They needed a win against a good team, and for a quarter and a half it looked like they were cruising to one against Boston. Instead Toronto is facing a freefall. At the moment, it feels like the stars have to align just for Toronto to be competitive with a good team. Once can be a moral victory. But Toronto’s loss to Boston was a catastrophe.

Things will stabilize. That’s how life works. But peak at the NBA standings, and the Raptors are already in a play-in spot with only very good teams (and the Atlanta Hawks) ahead of them. Can they outperform the defending champions over the remainder of the season? It’s too early to panic, but it’s more than late enough to say that the Raptors bet the farm on this season.

Things need to turn around and quick. It is not an exaggeration to say that the continued heartbeat of this still-fresh era depends on the Raptors making something of the 2026-27 season.