SIMMONS: Raptors allow play-in game to become a play-out game

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A Raptors season almost devoid of explanation ended sadly and rather painfully on a Wednesday night at home, a night of confusion, a night in need of further dissection.

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The play-in game was right there for the Raptors to take until it wasn’t and became a play-out game instead against the Chicago Bulls.

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Maybe the final night for Nick Nurse as coach of the Raptors.

Maybe the last game for Fred VanVleet as starting point guard and Gary Trent Jr., in Raptors colours.

A season ending one game after the regular season came to its conclusion, playing their own game of billiards, the Raptors left leaving too much on the table, missed too many free throws and too many easy shots.

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It was, this 109-105 loss to the Bulls, a microcosm of the Toronto season. There were moments of greatness. There were moments that had you believing. And in the end, there was so much to doubt about this team, these players, this coach, and this management team.

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The loss to the Bulls was a canvas of their season: It was collective in defeat. The playing wasn’t good enough. The coaching wasn’t good enough. The team that management put on the court wasn’t good enough. And in the final seconds, Pascal Siakam did the most Raptors thing of all. He had three free throws to tie the game with less than 20 seconds to play. He made the first one, but missed the next two. And suddenly a tie game wasn’t a tie and the one win needed to advance the Raptors into Miami now turns out to be a DeMar DeRozan-Kyle Lowry matchup of sorts. There is a Raptors theme in all that. A theme of what used to be.

A theme of what isn’t any longer.

If this is the end of Nurse as Raptors coach — and it sure seems like that is happening — this wasn’t the kind of end he had in mind. The Raptors played well for three quarters in almost area except from the free-throw line.

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The fourth quarter was won by Chicago 37-24. Nurse had no answer. The Raptors had no answer. The team ended the night with 18 free throws made, 18 free throws missed — a horrible 50% total, that cost them a game that really should not have been close.

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VanVleet, the pending free agent who found his way as a Raptor and whose story has been so much a feel-good one over the years, ended with 26 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists. And it still wasn’t enough. He missed an open three that could have tied the game late. He turned the ball over in the final minute.

VanVleet would never be the kind to go out quietly: It’s never been his style, never been his way. But his fourth quarter, with the game on the line, was too quiet. There is no way he wanted to end this game, maybe his time in Toronto, this way.

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Nurse coached the Raptors to an NBA championship and maybe we’ll never see that again. VanVleet was huge in those playoff series. Siakam was huge. That seems like a long time ago now.

Where do the Raptors go from here? Who do they keep? Who leaves? Who coaches next year? How are those decisions arrived upon?

These are questions for Masai Ujiri, who normally takes his time and tries to get the emotion out of figuring out what just went wrong. This game will take a while to get over.

The Raptors led after the first, second and third quarters. For a while, it looked like this would be one of those rare wire-to-wire NBA wins.

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Toronto led by nine points after three quarters but was outscored by 13 in the final 12 minutes. It let a win turn into a loss, a season of hope turn into a season of disappointment, one that needs more context and more strategic breakdown before completing the puzzle in some way.

You don’t win when you miss 18 free throws. Not when Chicago missed only four. Even when the three-point game goes your way. At one time, the Raptors were up 30-9 scoring from three. At the end, only 12 from three-point land, not the 21 that had them in position to advancing.

But that’s what happened all season long. One night it was offence. One night it was defence. Too many nights it was shooting. On Wednesday night, it was free throws and an inability to stop Zach LaVine. O.G. Anunoby did a terrific job handling DeRozan as best as he can be handled. But that was one of the few matchups Nurse won.

The rest of the season — too much of the season — was lost from a long list of defeats. Turning wins into losses. Turning what might have been a decent season into one that is now forgettable.

The crowd didn’t feel like a playoff crowd on Wednesday night. They knew before the result was known. A result that spoke loudly about a Raptors season gone wrong.

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