The Raptors host the Dallas Mavericks at 7:30 p.m. on TSN. Here are some quick notes from the ACC.
James Johnson won’t be in the lineup, as he’s dealing with a sprained left ankle. The team didn’t reveal the injury until just before tip-off as he sprained the ankle in warm-ups.
It’s a major blow given the absence of DeMarre Carroll and how well Johnson is playing of late. Johnson started the team’s last two games, scoring 27 points with seven rebounds, six assists, three steals and solid defense. Terrence Ross will likely start in his place, though Casey could opt to go with a funky look opposite the Mavs’ two-point guard lineup and start Cory Joseph instead.
UPDATE: T.J. Ross starts
Johnson was wearing funny pajama pants in the locker room, for those who need a visual of his sadness in light of the injury.
Jonas Valanciunas
Head coach Dwane Casey may have let slip that the team’s starting center will be out again Tuesday. Casey referred to the game as the 16th Valanciunas has missed, which is nothing but is still more open than the team has generally been when it comes to injury news.
It’s also not at all surprising. Context clues from beat reporters at Monday’s practice suggested that Valanciunas could still be a few games away. While Valanciunas has been able to do cardio and some other on-court work with a brace on his injured left hand, that can’t account for real, in-game action, and it may be a few practices before he feels comfortable getting out there.
Delon Wright minutes?
Casey also said during his pre-game availability that the team could give rookie Delon Wright some run while Cory Joseph is ill. Joseph has been dealing with an upper respiratory infection – “lung crud” as Casey called it – and has been in a bit of a slump as a result. The No. 20 pick in the draft, Wright’s played just 10 minutes on the season, all of it garbage time, though he’s impressed in D-League action.
Wright told Raptors Republic before the game that his stint in the D-League helped improve his confidence and he feels much more comfortable if asked to play now than he would have prior to the assignment, when rust was a concern. He also said that his opinion on the D-League has changed now that he’s been down. Here’s Wright:
I want to get a chance. If he does need me to play, I’ll be ready. I’ll just go out there and try to show what I can do.
…
If I was to get into a game earlier in the year before I went to the D-League, I probably would have been a little nervous. Now that I got some time to play an actual game, I think my confidence is up a little bit more and I wouldn’t be as nervous.(And on if his opinion of the D-League has changed…)
Definitely. I wouldn’t say I wasn’t happy but I was a little sketchy about going down there. Now that I’;ve actually got to go, now I’m happy that they sent me there to get some run, to get some playing time.
The Raptors rotation probably looks something like this tonight:
PG: Lowry, Wright
SG: Ross, Joseph
SF: DeRozan
PF: Scola, Patterson, A Created Player That Looks Like Anthony Bennett
C: Biyombo, Nogueira
Out: Johnson, Carroll, Valanciunas
D-League: Caboclo, Powell
Devin Harris
Harris is out for Tuesday’s game. He’s been dealing with a hamstring strain that held him out of the team’s game on Friday, with head coach Rick Carlisle calling him questionable “at best” on the weekend. The 32-year-old is averaging 7.7 points, 2.2 rebounds, 1.8 assists, and 1.1 steals in 24 games while shooting 46.5 percent from the floor, but the Mavericks will miss him most on the defensive end of the floor.
The Mavericks will look something like this:
PG: Deron Williams, J.J. Barea
SG: Raymond Felton, Justin Anderson, John Jenkins
SF: Wesley Matthews, Chandler Parsons (on roughly a 30-minute limit), Jeremy Evans
PF: Dirk Nowitzki, Dwight Powell, Charlie Villanueva
C: Zaza Pachulia, JaVale McGee, Salah Mehjri
Other Mavs stuff
Casey and Patrick Patterson talked about Dirk Nowitzki at shootaround. Casey talked about him even more during his pre-game availability. Nowitzki is 30 points from passing Shaquille O’Neal for sixth on the NBA’s all-time scoring list.
There’s also this:
Reporter: "Why have Deron Williams and Zaza Pachulia fit in so well?" Rick Carlisle: "They're old. Old guys do well here."
— James Herbert (@outsidethenba) December 22, 2015
The Line
The Raptors are 4.5-point favorites, right about where they’ve been all day.
