Fresh off a crushing 111-95 defeat to the New York Knicks, the Toronto Raptors gear up to face the Minnesota Timberwolves Thursday night in the Target Center. The struggles against the NBA’s top-10 teams have continued for the Raptors, and they are looking to win their first game against such teams since beating the Oklahoma City Thunder on Jan. 26th. 

Although they have played at a consistently high level against the average or worse teams in the league, Toronto has struggled to maintain that consistency against the league’s best. The scoring seems to disappear once the fourth quarter arrives, and whether it’s a personnel or schematic problem is up for debate, but it needs to come to a halt before the postseason if the Raptors want a chance at winning a playoff series. 

Toronto Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic | © Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images

Two-time All-Star Brandon Ingram did all he could against the Knicks, providing 26 points in the first half, but ultimately, New York’s fourth-quarter push was too much to handle. They went on a 16-2 run in the last 5:26 of the contest, and the Raptors looked hopeless in a half-court offense with seemingly no direction. 

In an effort to learn from their mistakes, the Raptors may be left short-handed in their trip to Minnesota, according to the official Injury Report. 

After the heartbreaking loss Tuesday night, Ingram sustained a thumb sprain, leaving him questionable for the one-game road trip. Standout rookie Collin Murray-Boyles has been listed as out due to a left thumb contusion, which will mark his third-straight absence. 

Being without Murray-Boyles has already proved to be detrimental to a struggling Raptors bench unit, largely because of his diverse defensive ability, similar to that of Scottie Barnes on a smaller scale. Losing Toronto’s leading scorer in Ingram would pose a whole new problem for a team that can’t seem to figure out what to do offensively late in games. 

While it will never be a good thing for either of these players to be out, if the former Duke Blue Devil is forced to miss the game, it could provide an opportunity for some of the other starters. There has been very little consistency from anyone on the team in terms of providing a real force offensively on a nightly basis. Playing yet another top-10 team will force someone to step up as the primary shot taker in the clutch. 

Without the alpha doing his best to close games, the pressure may be on head coach Darko Rajakovic to space out the rotations in a way to get the starters closing the game for a longer stretch than the last five or six minutes. Going a step further, he will also be forced to provide more help from the sidelines with playcalling and helping the players find a team rhythm, rather than trying to figure out who is hot and go straight to isolation.