Could Toronto trade for Jimmy Butler and more mid-Raptors-game thoughts

The Toronto Raptors lost to the Orlando Magic tonight, and instead of a normal recap I just let my thoughts flow from tip-off to final buzzer.

It’s a cold Friday night at Scotiabank Arena. The Toronto Raptors are playing the Orlando Magic. I am wearing my new green sweater that I bought on sale for Boxing Day. As the Magic quickly gain a 10-point lead on the Raptors, the thought of another blog post where I try to find positives in Raptors loss becomes wearisome to my still-on-holiday brain. Instead, I decide, I am going to write down every thought I have (within reason) from tip-off to final buzzer and see what we get.

An experiment that could either be a funny and light trot through a game from my perspective, or a random assortment of letters.

So, here is every thought that came to my mind from start to end of the Toronto Raptors’ 106-97 loss to the Orlando Magic:

-I immediately thought about how I could write about the importance of a true point guard if IQ had two good games in a row. That did not happen obviously because you’re reading this. IQ scored 11 points, 11 assists — not bad but not the offensive spark needed from a core guy.

-The way I would fly if one of these guys ran into me would be both hilarious and probably life-ending on my part. I’m 5’2 and reach the elbows of most of them.

-When Jakob Poeltl had scored half the Raptors total points in the first quarter I wondered why anyone would want to trade him. People want that! It’s weird to me.

-Then I went down a rabbit hole of what it would probably take to make a Jimmy Butler trade happen... I mean Scottie is off the table I’d assume, as well as RJ and IQ. Poeltl? Picks? Some of the bench? All of that combined? It’s hard to think is worth cleaning house like that but it’s also Jimmy Butler. He’s no Kawhi though... I guess it’s not impossible but also very unlikely.

-I’m gonna be so fr with y’all and say that I don’t follow many other teams other than the Raptors closely*, so when Orlando gained an 8 point lead on Toronto I searched the Eastern Conference standings — THEY’RE FOURTH?! Dang. Okay I was not familiar with your game (literally).

* Don’t be mad at me, I cover the Raptors, WNBA, college basketball, and Unrivaled... I don’t have time to keep up with the standings other than to know that the Raptors are near the bottom of them.

-In the opening minutes of quarter no. 2, the Magic were up 15-ish points on the Raptors, and I started wondering why I couldn’t have been at the game that they won instead? There is time though.

-Being at the game means you get to watch game ops, aka the little things they do to entertain the fans during timeouts. I have two distinct favourite game ops: The Giant Raptor that eats people, because I have taste, and the one where they throw the sneaker parachutes down from the rafters. The latter is because people literally climb over each other to get these little parachutes. I’ve seen people elbow kids, rip it out of other people’s hands, dive. It’s wild.

-After the ceremonial dropping of the parachutes, the Raptors were only down 11 points, and Jakob Poeltl came back in, which was fun because he had been scoring the most.

-Then he didn’t score any and the Magic scored 5 more points... Darko calls a timeout. That didn’t go to plan. Still don’t think Jak needs trading though.

-At this point there is 7 mins left in the second quarter. I deeply regret forgetting my noise cancelling headphones at home. It may seem odd to think about anyone wearing noise cancellers at a basketball game, even media — but oh my god it’s loud in here. When I turn on the headphones I can still hear fine, and it’s easier to write. The more ya know.

-With less than 5 mins to go in the half, the Raptors had only scored 37 points, which means they are risking not being on track to win 100-point pizza. They are doing a promo this year that fans can get a free slice whenever the Raptors score 100+ points. It’s what I track most in games because it’s not sad to think about, unlike most other things about this team right now (oop).

-At this point, Jalen Suggs went down in a non-contact injury, and a nice fellow up here who is on the Magic beat (didn’t get his name), kindly told us it seemed like re-aggravation of an injury he sustained last game. He was taken off the court in a wheelchair, in pain. I noted that it felt like there had been a lot of injuries this season in the NBA to my seat neighbour, Raptors Republic’s Louis Zatzman. To which he replied “nah, seems like the usual amount.”

-By halftime, the Raptors were down 12 points. Also, the advil I had taken for my headache was starting to kick in, fun. Not sponsored by Advil.

-Nothing about this Raptors’ game has moved me thus far, they shot 5-17 from three point range, as opposed to the Magic’s 13-30 in the same category. Yet I know some NBA fans aren’t moved by the three-point shot at all, so I will add in that the Magic also beat Toronto in field goal percentage, steals, blocks, rebounds and assist in the first half.

-We got into a convo on media row about which of the Raptors is the most likely to secretly be into crocheting. If you don’t know, I crochet. My opinion is Garrett Temple, personally. Also Immanuel Quickly wouldn’t shock me either. In reality it’s probably 0 of them.

Onto half no. 2!

-Before I knew it, the Raptors were down 20 points! Suggs was officially deemed “not returning” shortly into the third as well, with back spasms.

-I was getting hungry at this point, but the Raptors still were not on pace to score 100 points for free pizza. Don’t they know I am hungry?

-By the end of the third, only three players were in double digit scoring – Scottie Barnes (12), Ochai Agbaji (11) and Jakob Poeltl (15).

-Despite the deficit in score, the crowd tonight is LOUD. They are cheering at everything and booing more at what they don’t like from the refs. It’s certainly nice atmosphere-wise, but my headache is not impressed. Friday night hoops though, it’ll do that.

-Is this... a fake comeback I sense? How very 2021 of the Toronto Raptors. With an open three from Ja’Kobe Walter, the game was within 9 points. This caused the crowd’s first “DEFENSE” chant of the night. Maybe that’s why the team hadn’t been playing defense until now — no chant no defense!

-Not listening to the broadcast since I am here but someone tell me if Matt Devlin said “HERE COME THE RAPTORS” plz

-3:26 to go. 13 points away from pizza. Will we reach the threshold... the holy grail? Holy Grain? Holy Slice? I’ll workshop that one.

-Unfortunately the last 5 minutes of the game is too late to produce some energy, and the Raptors could not fully mount the fake comeback.

-91 points... 9 from pizza. 1 minute to go. 93 points... time is ticking and so are my pizza hopes. Yet they get to 95 with 35 seconds to go. 97 POINTS... and the game ends. Three points short. Travesty.

Welp, there ya go. The Raptors lose 106-97 to the Orlando Magic. I may have stopped tracking the actual score to instead focus on how close they were to free pizza near the end there. Oops.

They now sit at 8-27 on the season and will take the weekend off before playing on Monday Night at home against the Bucks.

Idk, I feel like my stream of consciousness was a fun idea? Something different? Maybe y’all hated it. We’ll never know (unless you leave a comment I guess).