When’s the last time you can remember an NBA team holding a players-only meeting and it turning out to be a good thing? I hesitate to even investigate. Often there’s a certain element of self-destruction about those meetings, guys so angry they can’t bite their lips anymore, or a coach called out. It takes a strong team made up of individually sound players to sit, listen and, if need be, constructively criticize. But all of that means nothing unless the team also responds.
The Raptors gave up on Thursday night, played about as badly as they could play for the final three quarters against the Thunder.