When watching preseason basketball, you have to remember two things. One, it doesn’t matter. Two, sometimes it does.
The top line reads that the Raptors had a dispiriting 105-90 loss to the Jazz in Utah. Toronto lost three out of four quarters, and rarely found any offensive flow against one of last year’s best defensive teams, shooting a horrific 35/18/71 for the evening.
Overall, it was a choppy game throughout as the two teams combined for 42 turnovers, and an extraordinary number of travel calls — especially in the first half. Both teams took turns putting up big runs, but a brutal start to the third quarter, where the Raps went with a modified Bench Mob unit that gave up a 25-5 run, and a Toronto capitulation in the fourth, caused by a combination of a deep-reserve line-up, a lack of touch, and unfocused play saw Toronto fall behind by as many as 20.