The Toronto Raptors earned this second consecutive day without a game. Like, really earned it. Hopefully practice was light, even if it wasn’t short. The team just played five games in seven nights and extended their hot stretch of play to seven wins in eight games, all while dealing with injuries and getting players some rest.
Let’s take a quick look back at the last two weeks:
March 8: Luis Scola sits for rest, Raptors beat Nets after awful first half
March 10: Raptors turn in great defensive performance, beat Hawks
March 12: Overtime’s required to beat a shorthanded Heat team at home
March 14: Jonas Valanciunas leaves in first quarter of ugly loss to the Bulls
March 15: DeMar DeRozan rests, Valanciunas out, Raptors crush Bucks and limit Kyle Lowry to 28 minutes
March 17: James Johnson out, Valanciunas out, Raptors beat Pacers
March 18: Johnson out, Valanciunas out, lose Patrick Patterson in fourth quarter, Raptors smash Celtics and limit DeRozan to 32 minutes
March 20: Cory Joseph rests, Johnson out, Valanciunas out, Patterson out, Raptors beat Magic
DeMarre Carroll was also on the shelf for each of those games. Three different players saw rest, four different players missed time hurt, and the Raptors still went 7-1.
“It’s a double-edged sword. The good teams accomplish both,” head coach Dwane Casey said at practice Tuesday. “It’s a tough situation. It’s a good situation to be in, but it’s a tough situation, because you’re trying to win and stay healthy at the same time.
They’ve played well enough through rest and injury that the Raptors are one win from tying the franchise record with 49 wins and one win – or CHI/IND/DET loss – from clinching a playoff berth for a third consecutive season. They can punch their own ticket and move an inch closer to 50 wins with a win in Boston on Wednesday, the first game of their final three-game road trip of the season. That opportunity is not something that’s gone unnoticed.
“I think it matters, just because this franchise has never got 50 wins. We’ve been close the last two years, and it’s a big part of the NBA, to get 50 wins,” Lowry said. “I can’t even keep the poker face on that one. Getting 50 wins is important to us.”
Lowry downplayed the chance to catch Cleveland for the top seed in the East, as did Casey. The focus seems to remain internal, one game at a time, and on getting to the playoffs in peak health and in peak form.
So, will everyone be playing with a 49th win and the playoffs on the line Wednesday? Is there more rest on the way? It’s tough to predict, given everyone’s day-to-day nature right now, but things were looking up a bit Tuesday.
Here are some repetitive unofficial updates from practice:
James Johnson (Achilles, plantar fasciitis): Practiced on Tuesday, is officially questionable for Wednesday depending on how he feels tomorrow.
Patrick Patterson (ankle): Practiced on Tuesday, is officially questionable for Wednesday depending on how he feels tomorrow.
Jonas Valanciunas (hand): Practiced on Tuesday, is officially questionable for Wednesday depending on how he feels tomorrow.
Are you seeing the trend? The Raptors are nearing a return to health on all fronts but aren’t going to rush anyone back for games that are essentially meaningless in the bigger picture. We’ll have to do the usual and wait for the pre-game news and notes post 60-90 minutes before tip-off (which is at 7:30) Wednesday.
If the injured players are good to go, the Raptors may opt to get someone else rest once again, instead. Doing so would effectively give that player four days off (Monday-Thursday) before a Friday-Saturday back-to-back. The Raptors could effectively have a “one man out” or “two men out” strategy in mind and if it’s not an injury, someone will sit for rest. Casey is keeping his strategy to himself for the time being.
“We anticipate having all bodies on deck,” Casey said. “We reserve the right to rest guys, and we’ll see who those guys are as we go along.”
Potential rest candidates: Lowry (third in the NBA in minutes), DeRozan (top 10 in minutes, free-throw attempts, and miles run on offense), Scola (looking refreshed of late but also old), Joseph (a six-day rest?), Bismack Biyombo (he certainly doesn’t seem to need it right now but the dude plays extremely hard and has played the second-most minutes of his career), Patterson (would have been a candidate without injury, maybe they opt to sit him regardless).
Oh, and there’s also the matter of the Raptors’ biggest injury, which hangs over any playoff analysis as a dark spectre of uncertainty. So…
DeMarre Carroll (knee): Shrug. Best we know, the timeline he’s aiming for remains late March. I’ve long suggested March 28 was an unofficial target, the first home game after the current trip and one that would let him get 10 games in down the stretch, eight if he sits one half of back-to-backs.
The team remains incredibly tight-lipped about his status, because that’s what they do. It can be frustrating, but the team ostensibly has their reasons. I’m fully expecting Carroll to emerge out of nowhere minutes before his first game back, perhaps being lowered from the rafters carrying a baseball bat late in a tight game. His absence has created a nice opportunity for Norman Powell to establish himself as a legitimate piece, but it’s nearing the part of the schedule where Carroll’s continued absence will grow more worrisome by the game (it’s not there yet, though you’re obviously welcome to panic as you see fit).
For what it’s worth, Carroll wasn’t on the floor when practice opened up to the media. Nearly everyone else was.
