Heyo. Happy Thursday. Hope the day is treating you well. Like, you found a loonie on the ground, or just caught the bus in time, or your crush smiled at you (#ShootYourShot2017, by the way). It’s been kind of a weird day, busy, but with little of real substance happening. And all this, without the Toronto Raptors doing a shootaround ahead of their game with the Utah Jazz. The Raptors also didn’t practice Wednesday, needing the mental break after a lengthy road trip.
I’m not going to repeat too much here. We went really in-depth with the game preview, and not a lot has changed since then. From the Raptors’ perspective, they’re…
“It’s part of the NBA. Everybody goes through it. Everybody has a part of the schedule you don’t look forward to, and we just went through ours,” Casey said before the game. “Coming home, the one thing you can’t do is relax and think home is gonna take care of you.”
The next week will be a tough test for the Raptors, and an important one. Utah, Chicago, Houston (on a back-to-back), and Boston don’t make for the easiest four-game stretch, even with three at home, and the team could probably use a bit of momentum built back up. It starts tonight, with a tough Jazz team missing an important player, one the Raptors edged by six in Utah just a few weeks ago.
The game tips off at 7:30 p m. on Sportsnet One and Sportsnet 590. You can check out the full game preview here.
Raptors updates
Patrick Patterson will sit once again. Patterson is dealing with a left knee strain that’s now kept him out of the last three-and-a-half games, and it’s hard to get a feel for if he’ll be ready to go here. He’s been off a week now, but there’s also a back-to-back coming up and it’s January, so the Raptors should (and will) be cautious.
“He’s out tonight,” Casey said. “Still sore and so we’re trying to let it calm down a little bit, and let the swelling go down a little bit more.”
With Patterson out, the Raptors have a few options. The Jazz start big with Derrick Favors and Rudy Gobert together, but they’ve often looked better with only one of those players on the floor. When it’s Favors and Gobert together, the Raptors should give another look to the dual-center lineups that were good against the Lakers and not as bad as their traditional ones against the Spurs, because there are some encouraging signs there. Otherwise, they might be able to buy some minutes smaller, with DeMarre Carroll or Norman Powell at the four – in the last meeting, the Raptors were a minus-2 in nine minutes playing like that, not a terrible result.
The 905 assignees, meanwhile, are staying in the D-League for the team’s Friday-Saturday back-to-back. The Raptors will only have 10 healthy bodies, then, but none of their next few games look like potential blowouts, anyway, so they likely won’t be needed (barring injury). Given the bit of rust both Fred VanVleet and Bruno Caboclo showed Wednesday and how long they’ve been on the road, getting a pair of games in here should do wonders for them. I’d imagine they rejoin the Raptors for their home game Sunday, as the 905 return home as well.
UPDATE: Lucas Nogueira is starting at power forward. Seriously! This is interesting on so many levels, but considering it came out five minutes before the game, we’ll save it for tomorrow. Just enjoy the weirdness for now.
PG: Kyle Lowry, Cory Joseph
SG: DeMar DeRozan, Norman Powell
SF: DeMarre Carroll, Terrence Ross
PF: Lucas Nogueira, Pascal Siakam
C: Jonas Valanciunas, Jakob Poeltl
Assigned: Bruno Caboclo, Fred VanVleet
TBD:
OUT: Delon Wright, Jared Sullinger, Patrick Patterson
Jazz updates
George Hill has been ruled out with a concussion, and his in-and-out of the lineup continues to be a big loss for Utah. His absence means the point guard duties fall on the shoulders of Dante Exum and Shelvin Mack, who are definitely better than the succession plan down the depth chart a year ago (when Exum was hurt and Mack wasn’t picked up until late), but who still aren’t a slam-dunk for the offense. Exum can certainly defend, at least, and he’s available after spending most of the last few weeks day-to-day with knee tendinitis (it’s unclear if he’ll start). Raul Neto could factor in, too.
The guard group wasn’t particularly effective stopping Lowry from eviscerating them a few weeks back, and that will remain a tough spot for Utah without Hill. At least with Alec Burks back and Rodney Hood fully healthy, the Jazz have the option to experiment going without a natural point guard and just playing super long at each position – a lot of their wings can handle the ball enough to perhaps make it tenable for small stretches. If Exum can play, that helps. Elsewhere, the DeRozan assignment is likely to be shared, but Hood should see the bulk of it. Maybe it’s a chance for Burks to finally get some run, and Joe Ingles put in a solid effort when asked to last time out.
It should be interesting to see who dictates the chess match in the frontcourt more. The Jazz are still deciding which way they want to play most often, and the Raptors could be forced into some tough rotations. It could be a case of both coaches reaching for what will work best until they find it.
PG: Shelvin Mack, Dante Exum, Raul Neto
SG: Rodney Hood, Joe Ingles, Alec Burks
SF: Gordon Hayward, Joe Johnson
PF: Derrick Favors, Trey Lyles, Boris Diaw
C: Rudy Gobert, Jeff Withey
Assigned: Joel Bolomboy
TBD:
Out: George Hill
Assorted
- Here’s a very interesting quote from Dwane Casey in today’s piece from Zach Lowe of ESPN: “If your big guys don’t dominate, you have to go small. I tell Jonas [Valanciunas]: ‘Oh, you want to play more? Then dominate. I don’t want to see fadeaways over 6-8 guys. Get to the rim. Get every offensive rebound. If not, you’re coming out.'”
- It’s hard to argue with that, though you could also point to how and how often Valanciunas is used and say he doesn’t get the full opportunity to dominate. He remains a bit of a conundrum, the perpetual enigma of the organization.
- As discussed earlier, Lowry and DeRozan are a bit behind where they should maybe be in All-Star voting.
- Also covered earlier, Jerry Stackhouse was named D-League Coach of the Month for December, making him and Casey the first ever duo within an organization to take the respective awards in the same month.
The line
The Raptors have been as heavy as 6-point favorites, and the line has settled in at Raptors -5. The over-under, which opened around 201.5 (the last meeting had a 202 total), has dropped to 198.5, so get ready for some hot hot defensive action. Toronto won by six on the road with Hill and Exum sitting (but Patterson playing), so holding somewhere close to there as the location switches seems reasonable enough. We’ll see if it moves at all with the Patterson announcement.
Raptors, Jazz
