Nothing makes sense right now. As the Raptors stumble into LA to face the Clippers, it’s hard to focus on, you know, basketball, when the entire league has eyes on the fiasco that transpired last night in Sacramento. Alas, we’re here, and one can only expect that the Clippers will feel the full wrath of the kryptonite that’s about to flare up in their faces as they face annihilation in the form of a blitzing Terrence Ross demolition.
It’s been an exhausting West-coast swing. The Raptors edged the Nuggets by a hair before careening against the Kings last night, and now they close a grueling back-to-back against a Clippers team that has bulldozed opponents all season long. It’s hard to find any silver lining in all this, but if anything is to boost your spirits – apart from the Raptors protesting last night’s oppression aggresively – it’s that the Raptors have matched up well against the Clippers in recent history.
Like really well. The Raptors have won four straight against the Clips’ by an average margin of 14.25 points. So let’s focus on basketball, take the Staples Center by storm, and win that appeal – all before replaying an overtime frame against the Kings sometime down the road where Terrence Ross becomes the first player since Draymond Green in 2015 to end with a 5×5 box score.
The game tips off at 10:30 on TSN 2 and TSN 1050. You can check out the full game preview here.
Raptors updates
**As expected, no DeMarre Carroll tonight who is resting. He was always going to sit one of the games on this back-to-back, so no surprises here.
PG: Kyle Lowry, Cory Joseph
SG: DeMar DeRozan, Norman Powell
SF: Norman Powell, Terrence Ross
PF: Patrick Patterson, Pascal Siakam
C: Jonas Valanciunas, Lucas Nogueira, Jakob Poeltl
ASSIGNED: Fred VanVleet, Bruno Caboclo
OUT: Delon Wright, Jared Sullinger
Clippers updates
**The biggest question mark for the Clippers heading into tonight’s game was the status of Wesley Johnson. All reports indicate he’s good to go now.
PG: Chris Paul, Raymond Felton
SG: J.J. Redick, Austin Rivers
SF: Luc Mbah a Moute, Jamal Crawford, Wesley Johnson, Alan Anderson
PF: Blake Griffin, Brandon Bass, Paul Pierce
C: DeAndre Jordan, Mo Speights, Diamond Stone
Assorted
- Some updates on the L2M report can be found here. Guess what – it’s still totally ambiguous and doesn’t tell us anything. The Raptors will appeal. They’ll have five days to provide evidence, and from there, the league has five days to respond.
- Drake was in L.A. for the AMAs last night, so it stands to reason he’ll be on hand for this one. The Raptors are winless on the season when Drake attends games.
Doc Rivers just called the league's decision to take away the Terrence Ross basket Sunday night in Sacramento unfair.
— Mike Ganter (@Mike_Ganter) November 22, 2016
Again, just because the right call was made (and it was), that doesnt mean the Raptors dont have a case in protesting the result (game over)
— Josh Lewenberg (@JLew1050) November 21, 2016
The line
I’ll be honest, I’m not big on this stuff, but I have an eerie feeling that against all odds, with their backs to the wall, the Raptors will surprise us all with a W here despite being -8.5 underdogs. Raps by 11.
