The Toronto Raptors need a win. We went over the stakes in the pre-game, but the Raptors are more or less acknowledging the fact now themselves. Nobody is calling the game a must-win or anything – even with a back-to-back with the suddenly second-place Boston Celtics looming Wednesday – but the quotes coming from the team express a certain level of urgency beyond the “we’ll find our way through the adversity” kind of quotes from a week or two ago.
“I don’t look at struggles on the road. I look at us struggling at home,” head coach Dwane Casey said at shootaround Tuesday. “I’m not trying to be trite or anything like that, but we’ve got to come out and take care of business. We’ve got to come out with the mindset of outworking them. We’re no longer second in the East. We’re in third and close to fourth. We’ve got to have that mindset that we’re the underdog, and we’ve got to scratch and get back to wherever we’re going. I’ve said this all year. We don’t have the liberty to look at other teams and look down at their record or whatever.”
He’s absolutely right, and it starts with the energy at the defensive end. One of the team’s stalwarts on that end has some fairly ludicrous and lofty ideas about what the team could be on that side of the ball, but the Raptors could probably settle for just “trying hard consistently” and make out better than they have over the last month.
“Top three in the league,” Patrick Patterson said when asked how good the defense can be. “Whenever we’re all talking, communicating, getting stops, llimiting paint touches, getting back in transition, doing all of the small things, diving on the floor, things that we’ve done before in the past, stringing that together for a consistent amount of games and going from there, I see us being top three. And we’re capable of it. We’ve done it before. We’ve been in the top tier on the defensive end of the ball. We just haven’t done it in a long time.”
He’s wrong with his top-three assessment, but his message is on point. The consistency of that message since Sunday’s loss shows that the Raptors may finally be getting the message that this woeful 1-6 (and 7-11) stretch of play has been flashing in bright, neon lights: They’re not good enough to give anything but their best, and it’s time to get back to doing so regularly.
The game tips off at 7 p.m. (NOT 7:30 – the time was changed) on TSN 1/4 and Sportsnet 590. You can check out the full game preview here.
Raptors updates
With the Raptors almost fully healthy (see below) and only one player away from the team, there isn’t really much to talk about here. I broke the big-man rotation down in the pre-game, noting that Casey perhaps hinted that Patterson could move back to the bench to bring back some role certainty and stability. Casey’s comments Tuesday were equally hard to figure out.
“It trickles down to the second unit. It trickles down to their performance, their chemistry. They kind of need each other for spacing and the style of play that second unit plays with. It affects them. Pat is one of our better players and he’s important to our team,” Casey said, before continuing in a different direction. “To me it’s important to getting off to a good start. And for a while we were not when Pat was out. When Pat was out, we were not getting off to a good start, we were at a deficit, a big-time deficit early. That’s one reason why we have to have our better players in early and try to figure out the rest last. Pat’s done an excellent job with that.”
So, your guess is as good as mine. To me, the starting unit with Patterson continues to make sense, and the limited data so far (it’s much larger for the foursome excluding DeMarre Carroll, which spans four seasons) supports it. If nothing else, the Raptors should try to avoid Pascal Siakam-Jonas Valanciunas and Jared Sullinger-Jonas Valanciunas pairings, as I wrote about today at The Athletic.
One other note I stumbled across today: Kyle Lowry leads the NBA with 15 games with 40 minutes or more (when rounding up), and is second with 11 if you don’t round up. The 30-year-old point guard who ranks third in the NBA in total minutes probably shouldn’t be going 40 minutes in a third of the team’s games. Just a thought. Ugh.
UPDATE: DeMar DeRozan will miss tonight’s game and Wednesday’s battle with the Celtics. His sprained right ankle swelled up after his return Sunday and the medical staff wants to be cautious with it. It’s smart to take the longview here, even with the Raptors being in pretty serious need of a victory. Norman Powell, who filled in admirably last week, stands to start again and soak up some of DeRozan’s touches once again.
UPDATE II: Patterson still starting at the four.
PG: Kyle Lowry, Cory Joseph, Fred VanVleet
SG: Norman Powell, Terrence Ross, Delon Wright
SF: DeMarre Carroll
PF: Patrick Patterson, Jared Sullinger, Pascal Siakam
C: Jonas Valanciunas, Lucas Nogueira, Jakob Poeltl
TBD: None
ASSIGNED: Bruno Caboclo
OUT: DeMar DeRozan
Pelicans updates
There’s not much popping on the Pelicans side, unless something comes out closer to tip-off. Refer to the pre-game for a more detailed breakdown here. Anthony Davis is finally (!) playing in Toronto after several missed appearances, which is awesome from a fan perspective and a big negative from a “get this W” perspective.
UPDATE: Tyreke Evans will sit for the Pelicans tonight. It doesn’t sound like there’s anything specific at play here, just a nod to the longview given his injury history. That leaves the Pelicans a little thin on the wings and means E’Twaun Moore is definitely getting the Gerald Henderson award tonight.
PG: Jrue Holiday, Langston Galloway, Tim Frazier
SG: Buddy Hield, E’Twaun Moore
SF: Solomon Hill
PF: Dante Cunningham, Terrence Jones
C: Anthony Davis, Donatas Motiejunas, Omer Asik, Alexis Ajinca
Assigned: Cheick Diallo
TBD: None
Out: Quincy Pondexter, Tyreke Evans
Assorted
- Raptors 905 have clinched the best record in the D-League’s Eastern Conference through the cut-off date, so head coach Jerry Stackhouse and staff will be coaching the East side of the D-League All-Star Game on Feb. 18 in New Orleans. It’s a nice nod to the work Stackhouse and company have done, and while you can’t measure D-League teams strictly by wins and losses, a 21-7 mark with a perfect 10-0 record on the road is pretty remarkable for a sophomore team. They also rank fifth in offense, fourth in defense, first in net rating, and sixth in attendance, so they’re doing something right.
- The big success will come when/if Axel Toupane finally gets called up. And, of course, the development of the assignment players.
- Speaking of, Bruno Caboclo is with Raptors 905 as they head to Canton for a road game. The 905 don’t play again until Saturday, so it’s possible Caboclo joins the Raptors on the road or just sticks with the 905 for some extra practice sessions. Now that the main roster is back to health, expect Caboclo to see more regular D-League time, similar to last year’s second half.
- A few people have asked: Feb. 5 is the cut-off date for coaching the All-Star Game. If the Raptors are in second after next Sunday, Dwane Casey gets the nod. They enter this game one game behind Boston for that spot, so Wednesday’s game could potentially determine the coach of the East All-Stars (Ty Lue is ineligible because he coached last year).
- The Raptors will once again wear their Chinese New Year jerseys tonight, the second time they’ve done so. The jerseys are really sharp, and seeing the red hats at Real Sports today, I wish I could pull one off. And Happy New Year to those celebrating it.
The line
The Raptors have floated between 8- and 9-point favorites, with the line currently sitting at Raptors -8. That seems a little large given how Toronto has been playing, but there appears to be market confidence in a bounce-back here. The over-under has held around 215.5 for most of the day without much movement. Check back momentarily to see how the line changed with the DeRozan news. UPDATE: The line quickly moved to Raptors -6.5 and could conceivably keep moving.
