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Pre-game news & notes: Valanciunas provides seeding perspective

Sadly, Born Ready is not ready just yet.

There’s been a lot of talk of late about the Toronto Raptors trying to play up or play down to the third or fourth seed, looking ahead to potential round-one or – more notably – round-two opponents. For the most part, people seem to be in agreement that there’s too much uncertainty one-two, three-four, and five-nine to really play that game, or at least to do so at this point in time.

Jonas Valanciunas has another reason not to try to tinker with fate and the standings:

That’s a pretty nice summation of how to handle the Raptors’ last seven games. The visiting Indiana Pacers, however, are up against it, tied for seventh without the tiebreaker and just a game up on eighth. We went over this in more detail in the preview, and since I wrote that and it’s been a quiet day, let’s just move on. Indiana should be hungry, and the Raptors are focused inward on simply being their best selves.

The game tips off at 7 on Sportsnet One and TSN 1050. You can check out the full game preview here.

Raptors updates
Dwane Casey noted at shootaround that next week, he’d like to inch closer to his playoff rotation. Kyle Lowry returning is obviously a big part of that, and Casey expressed optimism with Lowry’s progress so far, suggesting he could get into a couple of games. If he does, expect the Raptors to have one or two “dress rehearsal” style games (likely between April 5 and 12) in order to get a comfort level with a playoff rotation. If he isn’t back in time, or even if he is, the Raptors have the option to rest players down the stretch since the games don’t matter a ton. Casey has said in the past that he’s in favor of such a strategy if the situation allows, and said Friday that if anyone could use a rest, it’s DeMar DeRozan. The guess here is DeRozan has his minutes capped a little lower from here and sits one of the April 4-5 road back-to-back, but this is strictly guesswork on my part. I could conceivably see Serge Ibaka getting a night off, too.

As for the starting lineup, that topic has kind of been beaten to death at this point and those on one side have dug in. I provide the following only as update, not a commentary. Here are the different Raptors’ starting units that have started at least three games this year, by net rating:

Lowry-DeRozan-Carroll-Siakam-Valanciunas – -8.8, 365 minutes
Lowry-DeRozan-Carroll-Patterson-Valanciunas – +14.3, 199 minutes
Lowry-DeRozan-Carroll-Nogueira-Valanciunas – +15.4, 108 minutes
Lowry-DeRozan-Powell-Carroll-Valanciunas – -11.9, 62 minutes
Joseph-DeRozan-Carroll-Ibaka-Valanciunas – -2.6, 179 minutes
Joseph-DeRozan-Tucker-Ibaka-Valanciunas – +9.3, 78 minutes
Joseph-DeRozan-Powell-Ibaka-Valanciunas –9.4, 48 minutes
Lowry-DeRozan-Carroll-Ibaka-Valanciunas – +0.0, 0 minutes

PG: Cory Joseph, Delon Wright, Fred VanVleet
SG: DeMar DeRozan, Norman Powell
SF: DeMarre Carroll, P.J. Tucker, Bruno Caboclo
PF: Serge Ibaka, Patrick Patterson, Pascal Siakam
C: Jonas Valanciunas, Jakob Poeltl, Lucas Nogueira
TBD: None
ASSIGNED: None
OUT: Kyle Lowry

Pacers updates
The Pacers signed Lance Stephenson to a multi-year deal, a good reminder not to date your exes. Paul George seems happy, at least. Stephenson won’t suit up until Sunday, though, so the Raptors don’t have to worry about him Friday. The injured Rodney Stuckey was waived to make room for him. Glenn Robinson III (calf) and Al Jefferson (ankle) are also on the shelf, so the Pacers come in a little banged up here.

Speaking of Stephenson, this is a pretty wild note (and a great thread from friend of the site Jared Wade);

Everyone else is a go, and it will be interesting to see if the Pacers stick with their new, largely ineffective starting lineup (with Monta Ellis), or their older, more successful one (with C.J. Miles) that doesn’t give Nate McMillan very many options off the bench on the wings.

PG: Jeff Teague, Aaron Brooks, Joseph Young
SG: Monta Ellis, C.J. Miles
SF: Paul George, Georges Niang
PF: Thad Young, Lavoy Allen
C: Myles Turner, Rakeem Christmas, Kevin Seraphin
TBD: None
ASSIGNED: None
OUT: Al Jefferson, Glenn Robinson III, Lance Stephenson

Assorted

  • Bruno Caboclo, Fred VanVleet, and Pascal Siakam were recalled from Raptors 905 of the D-League following a nice showing last night. The aim here is probably to keep depth at the ready in the event of a blow out with the parent club and to get the lesser 905ers some shine in a meaningless regular season finale.
    • As of last night, there was not a firm plan for assignees for the 905’s postseason schedule (the first round starts April 4 or 5 on the road, then they play April 8 and 11 at home, the latter two of which aren’t Raptors game days). Caboclo will almost surely be down for the entirety of the playoffs, and Siakam seems a likely bet for at least the home games. The status of VanVleet will hinge on the return date of Kyle Lowry.
    • I provided this update in last night’s 905 recap, but in case anyone missed it – For those looking ahead to the first round of the playoffs, the 905 schedule is as follows:
      • Game 1: April 4 if @ Fort Wayne, April 5 if @ Canton
      • Game 2: April 8, 7:30 at Hershey Centre
      • Game 3: April 11, 7:30 at Hershey Centre (if necessary)
  • Over at The Athletic, I wrote about whether or not the Raptors should expect a post-return shooting slump for Lowry.
  • Friday fun: Valanciunas is spreading his Itty Bitty Ballers empire…and hiring employees!

The line
The Raptors are 5.5-point favorites after the line opened at Raptors -6.5. That’s a moderate shift, but more action is on Toronto’s side right now, so maybe it lands back at Raptors -6. The over-under edged down slightly, too, from 205 to 204.5.

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Matt Azevedo/MattAzevedo.com

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