Ghosts of Raptors past trample Raptors present

Late in the third quarter of the Toronto Raptors' Dec. 27 game against the Los Angeles Clippers, Scotiabank's game ops ran a selfie cam feature. Fans scanned a gigantic QR code on the jumbotron and turned the cameras on their phones into a vast network of shaky-handed, up-close-and-personal feeds. Call it the Blair Witch Project for all the first-person camerawork, but on the scale of The Dark Knight.

Toronto's fans weren't the only ones being spooked at Scotiabank. The Clippers may not be populated by as many former Raptors as they once were, but it was still the ghosts of Raptors past who punished the Raptors in this contest.

The hauntings began in earnest in the second quarter.

The Raptors quadruple-teamed Kawhi Leonard, hunting and hacking and holding and scrabbling and slashing at the ball. He calmy pivoted (perhaps more than once) and darted a pass to Norman Powell, standing deep behind the arc only a few feet away, who splashed the triple. Just a possession or two later, Powell attacked a Fred VanVleet closeout, jab stepped baseline, juking VanVleet out of the way, and romped to the rim for a dunk. Powell stripped Pascal Siakam in the paint to create a Clippers' runout and layup.

It was the type of moment to make your heart hurt: seeing an ex succeeding in just the same way you need from your current partn -- err, players. The Raptors have missed a shooter and rim threat like Powell since the day they traded him to the Portland Trail Blazers. The shooting, yes, it would be nice. The attacking the rim and efficient finishing? A dream.