Despite Bruce Brown’s debut, the Raptors lose their tenth game in a row

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The Toronto Raptors will end 2024 much like the team did all year – with another significant loss. Toronto fell for the tenth time in a row, this time on Sunday night 136-107 against the visiting Atlanta Hawks.

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The Raptors were eager to recover from the most points in franchise history on Boxing Day in Memphis, defending a little better and showing more fight, but were way too careless, turning the ball over almost at will and, once again, just couldn’t Hit threesomes. Point shots.

With Trae Young (34 points) and DeAndre Hunter (22) playing for the Hawks, the outcome never seemed in much doubt as Toronto fell to 7-25 in power. Only two teams enter 2025 with fewer wins than this group. Scottie Barnes led the Raptors with 19 points, RJ Barrett added 17, but neither did most of their teammates play particularly good games.

However, the evening actually started with good news: The Raptors announced before the game that winger Bruce Brown would be making his season debut after a series of false starts. Brown hadn’t played in 7.5 months when an offseason break resulted in his sore knee not returning to 100% fitness.

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Brown underwent surgery on the eve of training camp and has been reconditioning for more than a month, with a return expected to be imminent. Instead, as Brown explained Saturday, it took much longer than expected for him to feel confident enough to put on the suit because of the residual pain, but on Sunday it finally happened.

Brown looked sharp, throwing down a killer dunk, playing strong defense and also sending Gradey Dick in for a jam at one point. Brown had eight points at halftime and 12 at the end off the bench.

Toronto also welcomed back Jakob Poeltl, who missed four games. The team has gone 4:33 without a starting center over the last two seasons, but his timing seemed off as the fouls piled up. Rookies Ja’Kobe Walter and Jamal Shead also played after missing one and two games, respectively. That meant Toronto was as full as it had been for most of the season, even with backup point guard Davion Mitchell alongside starter Immanuel Quickley.

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The Hawks played without Dyson Daniels, plus scoring guard Bogdan Bogdanovic and veteran big man Larry Nance Jr., who played Saturday. Despite Young’s 2-for-9 performance, the team shot 40% from three against Miami.

Toronto had six turnovers in the first three minutes of the game and only retained control of the ball on one of its first seven possessions and 10 in the quarter. The Raptors finished with 31 turnovers, one shy of the franchise record. And it could have been even worse if Daniels, the NBA’s all-time leader in steals and deflections, had been able to play. Atlanta is finding its form again with four straight wins. In a strange bit of scheduling, the Hawks will travel from Toronto to Denver and then to Los Angeles and beyond.

Toronto next plays Boston in an early tip on the Tuesday before New Year’s Eve before hosting Brooklyn to kick off the new year.

Toronto posted a 20-62 record since Jan. 1 of last year, one of its worst calendar-year records since the franchise’s inception.

@WolstatSun

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