Now that we’ve all digested the riveting drama of Nick Nurse’s test-lab experiment on James Harden — and who’ll ever forget watching OG Anunoby and various teammates stand motionless next to the league’s top scorer for most of 40 minutes in Thursday night’s loss to the Rockets? — let’s grind things down to an actual halt.
The first quarter of the Raptors’ first title defence has come and gone. It’s time for a few moments of stock taking. And as impressive as this season has been at times — because sitting fourth in the East heading into Friday’s games after losing 40 per cent of your starting lineup to free agency seems like a semi-significant accomplishment — the opening 21 games have revealed some realistic truths about this Raptors team.