The Toronto Raptors will play the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday night, and both teams are in need of a win.
The Raptors are 0-10 on the road and have lost nine of their last 11 games. The Pelicans have also been struggling, losing five games in a row and 11 of their last 12.
Both teams have had chances to win recently but have fallen short. The Raptors had an eight-point lead going into the fourth quarter but lost to the Detroit Pistons, 102-100, on Monday night. The Pelicans lost by four points in their last two games, most recently falling 114-110 to the Indiana Pacers on Monday.
“We played really hard and we put ourselves in position to win the game,” Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic said. “We’ve got to do a better job of executing down the stretch and converting our offense and getting stops at the end.”
Toronto took 28 more shots than Detroit (104-76) but made only 39.4% of them.
“(The disparity in field-goal attempts) should put you in a pretty good situation to win the game,” Rajakovic said, “but we just did not convert at a high enough level. I thought we did a very good job of moving the ball and doing a lot of good stuff. We’ve just got to make shots.”
Three of the Raptors’ last four losses have been by four points or less, and the loss to the Pistons came from a buzzer-beating shot by Jaden Ivey.
“You need to … embrace the moment, to embrace competing, embrace when the game is on the line and to learn what it takes to win in those situations,” Rajakovic said.
Toronto, the only team in the NBA without a road win this season, has tied its franchise record for consecutive road losses at the start of the season, matching the 1997-98 team. They now face a Pelicans team that has struggled just as much.
However, New Orleans has had some help from newly signed point guard Elfrid Payton, who posted a career-high 21 assists, the most by any NBA player this season, against the Pacers.
“He was fantastic,” Pelicans coach Willie Green said about Payton. “He’s a big-time player. He makes your team better when he steps on the floor. He’s scrappy, he’s sound, he can guard. I’m really, really grateful to have him with our group.”
Like the Raptors, the Pelicans have faced many injuries, but guard CJ McCollum played on Monday night for the first time since Oct. 29. He had a slow start but ended up scoring 23 points.
“(We missed) his ability to create for himself and for his teammates offensively,” Green said about McCollum. “He’s just solid. We’ll need more of that from him.”
The Pelicans could get another boost on Wednesday, as they expect starting guard Dejounte Murray to return after fracturing his left hand in the season opener.
“We need to continue to stay together, which our guys are doing a great job of,” Green said. “Eventually, we will overcome this situation and we will be better for it in the long run.”
