We don’t have to do the full Sisyphus act here, with all recent progress lost and forgotten in a moment, but this is still no less true: if the Raptors somehow lose to the Minnesota Timberwolves again tonight, it’ll undo much of the goodwill they’ve accrued over the past week. Yes, it’s just one game in a long, bizarre season — but still, come on, it’s the freakin’ 7-22 Timberwolves. The Raptors have to just put them away.
The elements working against Toronto tonight are two-fold. For one, they will be playing without Kyle Lowry, which hasn’t exactly killed their chances of winning previously — they’re 16-2 since the start of 2019-20 without their captain — but it doesn’t quite help the overall mood.