It’s no longer early in the NBA season for the Raptors, who will finish the first quarter of the year when they host the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday night.
It will be their 20th game in the 82-game schedule — they are 12-7 after a win in Atlanta on Saturday — and any early-season issues should be worked out by now. The middle 40 games of the year are generally when good teams distance themselves from the competition. The last 20 are for setting up the playoff seeding and fine-tuning.
A look at four key components for the Raptors at the quarter mark:
The starters
They’ve been fine for the most part but there are some issues that have arisen and need to be addressed.