The Toronto Raptors, healthy for the first time in forever, spent most of last night’s game against the Charlotte Hornets experimenting with lineups, and played hard for about, oh, nine minutes. Apparently they thought that would be enough against the Hornets, coming in on the second night of a back-to-back and missing several players.
But the Basketball Gods occasionally frown on teams that try to flip the switch, and they decided to reward the Hornets and Jeremy Lamb at the buzzer and sent the Raptors to their second straight loss.
There is an argument to be made that, with nine games to go and the Raptors having their full lineup for the first time, Nick Nurse should roll with his expected playoff rotation and get everyone locked in for the postseason.