Darko Rajakovic points to the disaster in the Rockets’ game that caused Toronto to ‘hit’

If there is a game on the schedule where The Toronto Raptors could ill afford to miss starting center Jakob Poelt, it’s against the Houston Rockets — a team that makes life hell on the glass. They have Alperen Sengun, Steven Adams, Clint Capela and even Amen Thompson to beat opposing teams to a pulp on the boards. That’s exactly what happened on Wednesday, as even an incredible night of shooting from beyond the arc couldn’t save the Raptors from a 139-121 loss to the Rockets.

There’s no other way to describe what happened to the Raptors on the boards other than “beaten up.” Houston totaled 53 rebounds, 17 of which came on the offensive end; on the other hand, Toronto only managed to grab 22 rebounds on the night as a team. That’s a deficit that just can’t be overcome even though the Raptors shot 21-40 from deep on the night.

After the game, all Raptors head coaches Darko Rajaković could do was recognized that they were simply outsmarted on the boards even though the whole team fought as hard as they could.

“I thought our guys fought, they tried, they just beat us. They just hit us on the glass,” Rajakovic said, per Sportsnet’s Michael Grange.

The Rockets took the Raptors to jump school and the weight room at the same time. Adams in particular was a nuisance. He pulled down 12 rebounds in 20 minutes off the bench, eight of which came on the offensive glass.

This game was so rude welcome to Colin Murray-Boyles rookie NBA momentwho started at center instead of the injured Poeltl. Murray-Boyles could only grab one board – a pitiful number.

The Rockets take the Raptors frontcourt to the woodshed

Poeltl may not be the best center in the NBA, but he certainly gets the job done on the board — pulling down nearly double figures every night for his career. In his absence, the Raptors had to rely on a patchwork crew to deal with the interior, and as a result were destroyed by the Rockets.

Scotty Barnes ended up leading the Raptors in boards on the night, with five. That’s such a miserable number against a Rockets team designed to make grown men look like children.

Their next game will be against the Cleveland Cavaliers, another team with a deep frontcourt led by Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen. Can they resolve their return issues by then?