Raptors hit rock bottom, blow huge lead in loss to Utah J:azz

A season that has been filled with disappointments may have hit its low on Saturday, with the Raptors giving their loyal fans each a lump of coal.

Christmas came early for the Utah Jazz on Saturday night in the form of a Toronto Raptors team that gifted the visitors a 126-119 victory out of nowhere.

After leading by 17 points and 13 points after three quarters, Toronto appeared to be in perfect control of the game. However, the Raptors ran out of steam after playing in Philadelphia the night before, and the Jazz used a tremendous run to start the fourth quarter and turn the game around.

Scottie Barnes’ game-winning 32 points were ruined by Lauri Markkanen and Jordan Clarkson, who combined for 25 points in the fourth quarter.

Barnes scored 17 points in the first quarter, 24 in the first half, and attempted to tie the game in the fourth quarter for his team. The issue was that by the time the quarter showed up, the tank was obviously empty. It was Utah’s first game since Thursday.

The loss also ruined a big night for Pascal Siakam, not in terms of his play (Siakam struggled, missing 13-of-20 shots, many of them at the rim against a big Utah team) but because of the historic nature of the evening. Siakam joined DeMar DeRozan (675), Kyle Lowry (601), Morris Peterson (542), Jose Calderon (525) and Chris Bosh (509) as the only Raptors players to suit up for 500 games with the team.

“He just loves to play the game. He just loves to compete,” Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic had said of Siakam. “He’s one of those guys. He just looks like he’s coming ready to compete every single night. And I give him a lot of credit for his professional way of finding how to do that. It’s not easy to play 500 games in the NBA. And from what I saw this year, he’s one of those guys that is trying to bring it every single night. And I’m very complimentary of his contr

The loss also ruined a big night for Pascal Siakam, not in terms of his play (Siakam struggled, missing 13-of-20 shots, many of them at the rim against a big Utah team) but because of the historic nature of the evening. Siakam joined DeMar DeRozan (675), Kyle Lowry (601), Morris Peterson (542), Jose Calderon (525) and Chris Bosh (509) as the only Raptors players to suit up for 500 games with the team.

“He just loves to play the game. He just loves to compete,” Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic had said of Siakam. “He’s one of those guys. He just looks like he’s coming ready to compete every single night. And I give him a lot of credit for his professional way of finding how to do that. It’s not easy to play 500 games in the NBA. And from what I saw this year, he’s one of those guys that is trying to bring it every single night. And I’m very complimentary of his contribUtah was one of the NBA’s feel-good stories at this time last season, exceeding expectations substantially, but had slipped to 11-18 this year and came in ranked 25th of 30 teams in both offensive and defensive efficiency. They left town at 12-18, compared to Toronto’s rough 11-18 mark.utions to the team this year.”