Happy semi-final fantasy football Sunday! May Shammgod bless all of your lineups today. I don’t have much more to say to set this thing up than that – I wrote the game preview just a few hours ago, am enjoying some time at home with friends, and there was nothing of notes out of shootaround or throughout the day. So let’s just get on with it, yeah?
The game tips off at 6 p m. on TSN 2 and TSN 1050. You can check out the full game preview here.
Raptors updates
It remains mostly smooth sailing on the Raptors’ side of things. Delon Wright is cleared for one-on-one contact and for getting caught sleeping on Norman Powell’s Instagram, Jared Sullinger is out of his walking boot (at least the last two times I’ve seen him), and a lack of back-to-backs means DeMarre Carroll is playing night in, night out.
The stasis on the injury report hasn’t made for stable rotations, though, and if there’s anything to be curious about between now and tip-off, it’t the starting power forward position. We’ve beaten the arguments to death by now, but Dwane Casey has opted to make a change at the beginning of the second half in each of the last two games, and Serge Ibaka isn’t exactly an easy cover at the four. The issue isn’t really Pascal Siakam, but the Siakam-Jonas Valanciunas pairing, which has for various reasons struggled on the defensive end without cleaning up the glass to make up for it. Patrick Patterson wouldn’t help with the rebounding issue, but Casey’s called on him to steady the defense in back-to-back games.
It’s worth monitoring, so check back before the start of the game to make sure there are no impromptu changes.
UPDATE: Cory Joseph is out with flu-like symptoms. That likely means some time for Fred VanVleet and some additional run for Norman Powell in the Kyle Lowry-and-bench group.
PG: Kyle Lowry, Fred VanVleet
SG: DeMar DeRozan, Norman Powell
SF: DeMarre Carroll, Terrence Ross
PF: Pascal Siakam, Patrick Patterson, Bruno Caboclo
C: Jonas Valanciunas, Lucas Nogueira, Jakob Poeltl
Assigned: None
TBD: None
OUT: Delon Wright, Jared Sullinger, Cory Joseph
Magic updates
There have been fairly frequent changes to the Magic rotation, but it seems as if Vogel’s found something he likes of late. Moving Payton to the bench maybe isn’t the long-term solution, but it gets him more minutes alongside a strong shooter in Jodie Meeks, and the better shooting on the second unit in general should help the young point guard. The bigs, meanwhile, continue to share the floor in different combinations, including Biyombo playing some power forward, and while those experiments or necessary, it means Gordon’s primarily played the three, which is probably not the spot he’s best utilized at in the bigger picture.
From a defensive standpoint, I’d expect Gordon to draw first crack at the DeRozan assignment, while Biyombo’s deployed opposite Valanciunas to try to help neutralize the pick-and-roll attack. Biyombo’s also likely to be a part of an Orlando trapping strategy, whether that be with Gordon or Evan Fournier on DeRozan. Teams have been getting quite aggressive against the Raptor ball-handlers, and since Orlando starts a pair of rim-protectors, they can freely have one help blitz without losing that aspect of their defense (especially if they’re aggressive helping off of Siakam, as some teams have been).
PG: D.J. Augustin, Elfrid Payton
SG: Evan Fournier, Jodie Meeks, C.J. Watson
SF: Aaron Gordon, Jeff Green, Mario Hezonja
PF: Serge Ibaka, Damjan Rudez
C: Bismack Biyombo, Nikola Vucevic, Arinze Onuaku
Assigned: C.J. Wilcox, Stephen Zimmerman
TBD: None
Out: None
Assorted
- I mentioned this in the pre-game, but Jared Sullinger has been out of his walking boot the last two times I saw him. That’s an encouraging step forward, but there’s still no timeline for his return. Dwane Casey said last Friday that Sullinger was at least four-to-five weeks away, and that may have been just to get him back working out and on the court. He probably has a few hurdles to clear in terms of getting the OK for more running, and then eventually contact. But he’s moving forward, which is good.
- I’d expect Fred VanVleet, Bruno Caboclo, and maybe Jakob Poeltl to be assigned to Raptors 905 for Tuesday morning’s 11 a.m. tip-off at the Air Canada Centre. The team might not want all three to work a double-header, but with Nogueira back healthy and the team rarely going beyond a 10-man rotation, it might be a good chance to get the young guys some extra run. And without a commute, no less!
- As always, it’s nice to see Bismack Biyombo.
Reunited and it feels so good!
Great to see ya, Biz. #WeTheNorth pic.twitter.com/epV7OU7xCu
— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) December 18, 2016
The line
The Raptors have held steady around a 6-point favorite all day, and the over-under has continued to drop, settling in at 213 as of this writing. I’m gonna stick with Raptors 112, Magic 102.
