TORONTO – You could sense the frustration in Nick Nurse’s voice as he delivered the news just ahead of Wednesday’s game, and it was hard to blame him.would be out for the “foreseeable future,” Nurse revealed that Precious Achiuwa would also miss time.How much time? The Raptors’ head coach knows better than to speculate at this point. Injury optimism hasn’t worked in his favour recently.“Obviously, it’s aggravated again,” Nurse said of Achiuwa’s lingering shoulder tendinitis.
So, with the lowly Oklahoma City Thunder in town on Wednesday, Toronto was missing its leading scorer and the only two centres on its roster, and it showed.Less than a week after losing an NBA game by a league-record 73 points, the 7-16 Thunder and its 30th-ranked offence outscored the Raptors 33-12 in the third quarter to turn a 10-point halftime deficit into an 11-point lead going into the fourth quarter.The Raptors’ defence locked in at the end of the final frame.