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The Toronto Raptors went into Saturday night’s road game against the Washington Wizards suffering through one of the longest losing streaks in franchise history.
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Nine straight defeats, for only the 10th time since the Raptors started playing in 1995. The 2020-21 team also did it, but that was in the lost season in Tampa Bay during the COVID-19 pandemic. This one has been miserable too. Toronto played without any of its regular starters in Friday’s home loss against Oklahoma City and it’s unclear if any will return for the final few weeks of the season.
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The good news was the woeful Wizards represented a glorious opportunity to end the skid on Saturday. Washington has managed to catch the Detroit Pistons at the bottom of the NBA’s standings, even though Detroit lost 28 straight games this year, finally winning against — the Raptors! on Dec. 30.
This isn’t even close to the longest Raptors losing streak though. The all-time worst version of the team, the 1997-98 edition which won only 16 games, to go along with 66 losses, fell 17 times in a row in the early days of that season and then again 13 straight times as the campaign wound down.
The 2010-11 and 2001-02 Raptors also lost 13 games in a row. Somehow the 2001-02 team made the playoffs even though Vince Carter got hurt and missed the stretch run. The club rallied and won nine straight — the fourth-longest winning run in franchise history — to get in. This year’s team isn’t making the playoffs or the play-in.
The other two Raptors teams to lose at least 10 straight were the 2002-03 (12) and 2005-06 (10) Raptors.
Those were dark times. This season is up there with them.
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