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These Toronto Raptors sure seem to like going on streaks. The team beat Charlotte 108-97 on Friday night at home for its third straight win, which followed four consecutive losses. Before that, a pair of three-game winning streaks were sandwiched around one loss and there have been plenty of long runs of either victories or defeats since January.
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Jakob Poeltl had his way with the Hornets on Friday with 24 points, 12 rebounds and only two missed shots in 24 minutes. Scottie Barnes had 18, Immanuel Quickley 19. Charlotte was wretched offensively, but was led by Mark Williams, who had 18 and 12 and didn’t miss a shot.
The Hornets took a major loss hours before the game even tipped off when the team announced franchise player LaMelo Ball would be shut down to have surgery. Ball will have procedures done to fix his right ankle and wrist issues in the hopes that the former all-star might finally be able to withstand a full NBA season. Ball, 23, has missed an average of 47 games over the last three seasons.
Toronto rested RJ Barrett, but had far more NBA talent available than the Hornets, the league’s third-worst team this season and a franchise that has missed the playoffs for nine straight years.
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Toronto led 32-20 after a quarter, holding Charlotte to 33% shooting while hitting six three-pointers to two by the Hornets.
The lead dropped to only two points at halftime following a dismal second quarter from the Raptors that saw the team hit only one more three-pointer.
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The Hornets briefly took a three-point lead in the third quarter, but the Raptors quickly erased any thoughts the visitors might have had of stealing the game, or even making it competitive for a lengthy stretch. Toronto scored the next 15 points of the game and that was pretty much that.
Toronto won for the 27th time this season, two more than last and tied with the 2005-06 edition for the sixth-fewest wins in the franchise’s 27 82-game seasons.
The team next plays Sunday in Philadelphia and Tuesday in Chicago before back-to-back home games next Thursday and Friday against Portland and Detroit.
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