{"id":695032,"date":"2026-04-03T01:34:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T01:34:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/695032\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T01:34:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T01:34:24","slug":"raptors-fans-ray-of-hope-continues-to-surface-through-collin-murray-boyles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/695032\/","title":{"rendered":"Raptors fans’ ray of hope continues to surface through Collin Murray-Boyles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Toronto’s last contest against the Sacramento Kings on April 1 left a lot to be desired. They got absolutely ran through and obliterated, thanks in large part to former Raptors big man Precious Achiuwa<\/a>, who ate on the offensive glass and equally had his way on the scoring front. <\/p>\n

While the Raptors exited the game with their morale taking a hit and exposing several lingering weaknesses, a glimmer of optimism still emerged amid the defeat. That ray of hope in question is rookie Collin Murray-Boyles, who achieved a new career-high in points<\/a> against Sacramento. <\/p>\n

Collin Murray-Boyles shows grit in the face of tough Raptors loss<\/p>\n

CMB saw 18 minutes of action, where he posted 20 points on an efficient 7-for-9 shooting from the field, went 6-for-8 from the free throw line, along with four rebounds and two assists. He was Toronto’s second-leading scorer in the game, tying with RJ Barrett, while Sandro Mamukelashvili was strong off the bench with 17 points. Collin Murray-Boyles surpasses his previous career-high in points, when he logged 19 points on 7-for-13 shooting, including 3-for-5 from deep, in an early season affair against the San Antonio Spurs. <\/p>\n

On a night when the Raptors felt a step behind in energy, defense, and hustle, Murray-Boyles emerged as a bright spot, consistently demonstrating commendable effort throughout the game. He was aggressive getting inside, looking to provide Toronto with a similar sense of frontcourt impact that the Kings were comfortably receiving from Precious Achiuwa. <\/p>\n

Of course, the rebounding disparity was crystal clear, as that was a key stressing point in the post-game pressers, and CMB struggled to rack up boards to the same degree as Achiuwa. But that was just a problem on the Raptors’ side in general, so it would be unfair to single out Murray-Boyles for failing to step up in that category.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Scottie Barnes has been impressing Raptors Nation with his assist streak. But on the flip side, in games when key scorers like Brandon Ingram and Immanuel Quickley are out, I was hoping to see No. 4 step up offensively beyond just his solid playmaking. I think it says quite a bit that CMB showcased his potential to play with aggression, get to the line, and step up on the scoring front. Plus, we’ve been robbed of ample Murray-Boyles run this season given his nagging thumb issue, so it’s great to see him making up for lost time and opportunities. <\/p>\n

Without meaning to sound too harsh on Scottie Barnes though, I was also pleasantly surprised by the connection between Barnes and CMB. Three of Barnes’ 10 assists against Sacramento<\/a> were dimes to Murray-Boyles, tying RJ Barrett as the player Barnes found most often in the game. That in itself creates an intriguing chemistry that could flourish in the Raptors’ outlook moving forward. <\/p>\n

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again \u2014 Collin Murray-Boyles is poised to be a key building block for the Raptors’ future. I believe he\u2019s carved out a spot on the short list of untouchable Raptors players<\/a>. While a gloomy cloud hangs over Toronto’s playoff hopes<\/a>, there’s a silver lining: the continued development and rise of CMB gives Raptors fans something exciting to look forward to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toronto’s last contest against the Sacramento Kings on April 1 left a lot to be desired. They got…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3770],"tags":[7,6,681,680,476,3820],"class_list":{"0":"post-695032","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-raptors","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-raptors","11":"tag-toronto","12":"tag-toronto-raptors","13":"tag-torontoraptors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116338207321733400","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}