Today is annually one of my favorite days of the year. It’s opening day in Major League Baseball. It’s the first official day of fantasy baseball season. It’s championship Sunday in fantasy basketball leagues. And it’s Wrestlemania! It’s also a beautiful day out and I spent the morning at the weirdest/coolest antique/vintage store finding the weirdest albums, sports and wrestling memorabilia (shout out to the Kelly Gruber painting that was way too expensive), and what-the-hell-even-is-this trinkets and the like.
It has been and will continue to be a good day, I’m saying. It continues with the Philadelphia 76ers visiting the Air Canada Centre in a game that objectively doesn’t mean a ton to the Raptors in tangible terms, given the uncertainty around seeding preferences and the like. Because some people seem much more invested in the day-to-day seeding despite its impermanence, here’s a look at what’s going on around the league today:
- 1-2 seed: Boston defeated New York, Cleveland hosts Indiana – Boston could be up by 1.5 games by the end of the day, which may be enough of a cushion for Raptors fans to prefer the four seed. Wednesday’s BOS-CLE meeting looms large. (Cleveland still has a 56-percent chance at the one seed, per Inpredictable’s model.)
- 3-4 seed: The Raptors host the 76ers while the Wizards visit the Warriors. The Raptors could move to one game up – with the tiebreaker – by the end of the day, giving them the inside track on the three seed. (Toronto has a 60-percent chance of finishing third, per Inpredictable.)
- 5-6 seed: Milwaukee hosts Dallas and Atlanta visits Brooklyn, both winnable games. The Bucks are a game up and the Hawks are sputtering and still not entirely healthy, so a win Sunday would probably make Milwaukee fairly comfortable in the five spot. (Milwaukee has a 67-percent chance at the five-seed, per Inpredictable.)
- Milwaukee lost.
- 7-9 seeds: Indiana visits Cleveland, Chicago visits New Orleans, and Miami hosts Denver. No easy tasks there. There’s no immediate impact to Toronto in these spots, but who finishes here stands to determine how fatigued Cleveland might be and who will eliminate Boston in round one. All three enter play today tied, with Indiana on the wrong end of the three-way tiebreaker. (Indiana has a 45-percent chance at missing the playoffs.)
The Raptors should win their own matchup. Whether or not finishing third ends up being preferable to fourth, well, we’ll see, but they have little choice but to go out and play their game, trying to be the best possible versions of themselves for April 15. For seeding, in the words of Jonas Valanciunas, “shit happens.”
The game tips off at 6 on Sportsnet One and Sportsnet 590. You can check out the full game preview here.
Raptors updates
Kyle Lowry is not playing tonight, but per Eric Koreen, Dwane Casey indicated today that Lowry does NOT need to practice in order for the team to feel comfortable using him in a game. That’s an important note considering tomorrow is the team’s last practice until next Saturday. The team could also have some additional CBA/rest days off, so it makes sense to just start getting him reps whenever he’s able. Him playing Wednesday or Friday would seem to be within the realm of possibility.
UPDATE: P.J. Tucker is a late scratch due to left knee soreness. This is a nice opportunity for Norman Powell to re-assert himself and make a case for inclusion in the playoff rotation. But here’s hoping this is just precautionary with Tucker, because he’s become a huge part of this team, their attitude, and their defensive success. It’s probably not cause for concern, opposite the Sixers with little on the line. (I hope.)
PG: Cory Joseph, Delon Wright, Fred VanVleet
SG: DeMar DeRozan, Norman Powell
SF: DeMarre Carroll, Bruno Caboclo
PF: Serge Ibaka, Patrick Patterson, Pascal Siakam
C: Jonas Valanciunas, Jakob Poeltl, Lucas Nogueira
TBD: None
ASSIGNED: None
OUT: Kyle Lowry, P.J. Tucker
76ers updates
The Sixers are so banged up that they were granted an injury exception, one they used to pluck Alex Poythress from the D-League. Poythress will be available Sunday, giving Brett Brown a whopping 10 players to use, including one entire point guard! The most commonly used lineup they have with all five players available tonight has played all of 36 minutes together. As a comparison, even with Lowry hurt, Terrence Ross traded, and the two deadline acquisitions, the Raptors have five lineups available that have played together for that amount of time or longer. Philly stays the weirdest.
PG: T.J. McConnell
SG: Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, Nik Stauskas
SF: Justin Anderson, Gerald Henderson, Alex Poythress
PF: Dario Saric, Shawn Long
C: Richaun Holmes, Tiago Splitter
ASSIGNED: None
TBD: None
OUT: Ben Simmons, Jerryd Bayless, Joel Embiid, Jahlil Okafor, Sergio Rodriguez, Robert Covington
Assorted
- None of the Raptors are on assignment with Raptors 905, but expect that to change after the game. Bruno Caboclo will be headed down as the D-Leaguers prepare for postseason action, and Pascal Siakam could join him. (Fred VanVleet probably won’t follow in kind at least until Kyle Lowry is back, though he might practice with them at some point just in case.)
- It goes without saying, really, but Masai Ujiri confirmed this week that the Raptors intend to try to re-sign Lowry, calling him perhaps one of the five best players in the league this season prior to his injury. In other news, the Raptors would also still prefer to win games, enjoy making money, and wouldn’t argue with continued success. It’s nice to hear these confirmations, but it’s nothing you shouldn’t already believe.
- The Final Four games last night were awesome and hilarious at the same time. I still can’t get over the end of UNC-Oregon. Both CanCon teams came up on the wrong end, but shout out to Duane Notice, Dillon Brooks, Dylan Ennis, and the injured Chris Boucher on terrific years and great tournament runs continuing the growth and impact of Canadian basketball.
The line
The Raptors opened as 12.5-point favorites but the line has come all the way down to Raptors -10.5. There’s probably just too little on the line and too much potential for an early switch to the bench for Toronto for betters to stomach such a large initial line. In any case, the Raptors are substantial favorites. The over-under is holding around 211.5.
