Raptors survive challenging stretch of early-season schedule The second half of Sunday's matinee at Staples Center had us all reaching for our team handbooks. TSN's Josh Lewenberg explains how the Raptors stumbled but held on for a big victory and how it fits into a very tough season opening schedule.

Josh Lewenberg TSN Raptors Reporter Follow|Archive

TORONTO - The second half of Sunday's matinee at Staples Center had us all reaching for our team handbooks.

Just how bad was it? After dropping 63 points on the host Clippers in the opening 24 minutes, one of their most impressive halves of basketball on the young season, the Raptors just barely avoided historic embarrassment. The eight points they scored in the third quarter matched a franchise low and, with seven and a half minutes to go, their 29-point halftime advantage was diced down to six.

Suddenly, visions of the biggest collapse in their 21-year existence came rushing back. In case you blocked it out of your memory bank, which would be completely understandable, Toronto once coughed up a 27-point lead to the Warriors in Oakland. That game was in 2013, at around the same time of the campaign, with the team on a similar road swing.

This is a franchise that has endured some of its most cringe-worthy moments on long West Coast trips and, at least statistically, this one would have been the worst.

In the end, they hung on for the 91-80 victory - a testament to their mental resolve and just how far they've come over the last couple years but, if they looked like a team that had run out of gas, it's probably because they're a team that had run out of gas.

Sunday's was the last leg of a five-game trip, spanning eight days out West. It was Toronto's 11th road game of the season - two more than anyone else in the NBA has played and four more than any of the Eastern Conference's other top-9 teams. Overall, the Raptors have played a league-high 15 contests.

To say their early-season schedule has been daunting would be an understatement but, despite the usual angst from the fan base, they've prevailed with a commendable record of 9-6.

It hasn't necessarily been pretty, nor should we have expected it to be. Understandably, there have been some peaks and valleys at pretty much every facet of the game. Their offence - ball movement, three-point shooting and decision making in particular - has come and gone. The defence, while much improved (they've gone from the 23rd ranked team last year to 11th), has also been inconsistent.

They've left some wins on the table, which can certainly be a source of frustration for those hoping to see them take the next step. Take this trip for instance. The Raptors had a fourth-quarter lead in each of their first three games - all losses by six points or fewer. Recently, their inability to execute down the stretch has stood out but they've also fallen victim to some missed opportunity, slow starts and even botched calls in the season's opening month. If nothing else, the narrative is rarely boring.

But the perception that they've been a moderate disappointment to this point is misguided.

First, consider what they've been forced to overcome. In addition to the excess of games, the travel and the lack of practice time to begin the year, the Raptors have had to work seven new players into the lineup while installing a modified system on both ends of the floor. DeMarre Carroll, the club's biggest off-season addition, missed three games and has been playing through a nagging foot injury. Terrence Ross, one of their best shooters, was sidelined for almost two weeks. Now, they'll be without their starting centre and most efficient player for an indefinite stretch as Jonas Valanciunas recovers from a fractured hand.

With all of that in mind, most would have to agree a 9-6 start is more than reasonable, even if you haven't exactly been encouraged by their body of work. At 6-5, they've managed to stay above the .500 mark away from home, including impressive road wins over the Mavericks, Thunder and, now, the Clippers. Despite some inconsistency on both ends, they rank as a top-11 club in both offence (seventh) and defence (11th), a goal of theirs entering the campaign and an improvement from last year's one-dimensional team.

Individually, Kyle Lowry continues to perform at an extremely high level. The all-star point guard entered Sunday's game averaging a career-best 20.6 points. He leads the East in three-pointers made, has more steals than anyone else in the NBA and is tied with LeBron James for third in win shares (an estimate of the number of wins contributed by a player) trailing only Stephen Curry and Russell Westbrook. Although DeMar DeRozan's late-game decision making has been a concern and he's shooting just 42 per cent from the field, his player efficiency rating is actually higher than ever thanks in large part to a career-best 4.3 assists and 8.9 free throw attempts per game. Meanwhile, newcomers Carroll, Cory Joseph and Luis Scola have all been as good as advertised, if not better. Valanciunas was also playing some of the best basketball of his career before sustaining the injury late in the first half of Friday's win over the Lakers.

An unusually balanced Eastern Conference is another reason to feel good about where the Raptors are sitting after 15 contests. While they've battled the schedule and early-season injuries, they are fortunate that nobody's run away with the East. As of Sunday night, the conference's top 11 teams were separated by only three games with just two clubs - the Nets and winless 76ers - looking like clear bottom feeders.

It's almost impossible to get an accurate read on where this team stands as they head back home - where they'll play eight of their next 10 games - and the schedule begins to turn in their favour. In many ways, Sunday's dramatic win over the Clippers is the epitome of their season so far - great one moment, borderline unwatchable the next.

Unlike last year, when they faced the toughest part of their schedule towards the end of the season - as Lowry and others were already breaking down - they've gotten it over with early, which should work to their benefit moving forward. Dwane Casey and company will still have to adjust to life without Valanciunas, who is expected to miss roughly six weeks after deciding against surgery, but we should learn a lot about what they're made of over the coming weeks.