Pre-game news & notes: Miles back from illness vs. Clippers

It’s tune-up season. After only seeming to get up against better opponents for the last month, resulting in a slide on the defensive end from nearly elite to downright average, the Toronto Raptors will play six winning teams in a row and seven in their final nine games beginning Sunday, when a desperate Los Angeles Clippers team visits.

The message from head coach Dwane Casey has long been to treat every team the same regardless of record. The Raptors haven’t done that, and so the next two weeks should force them to find the appropriate focus and urgency they’ll need in mid-April. Ideally, that wouldn’t have been necessary. It’s nice to have a cushion atop the Eastern Conference in the event it takes them a few games over the next while to work their way back to the right gear.

“That’s one reason why all year you say don’t look at the record. If you do that, these games are gonna be the same,” Casey said. “The consistency, the approach you take against these teams, it’s gotta be a business-like approach, and that helps…We understand who we’re playing, how they’re playing, what they’re playing for, and all that, but for us it’s about approaching it in a consistent way and not creating bad habits. I thought we had bad habits in our last game, looking at the record and listening to the noise.”

The Clippers have been playing poorly but are still alive. They should be looking to end their road trip with a win to keep their playoff hopes alive. Maybe the opportunity to play spoiler – or even just Saturday’s practice, their first real one in a while – will help get the Raptors back to where they need to be.

The game tips off at 6 on TSN 1/3/4 and TSN 1050. You can check out the full game preview here.

Raptors updates
Toronto will have C.J. Miles back from a two-game absence due to illness here, which should help. The second unit’s offense always feels it when Miles isn’t around, and while the Raptors have been shooting well, his presence makes the team a lot more lethal. This could spell the end of Norman Powell seeing regular minutes for the time being, though it’s never taken long for him to get another window (in this case, it will either have to come as the 11th man or when someone else rests). Somewhat surprisingly given the erratic roles, Powell has played 62 games and 72 percent of the minutes he played last year. It’s felt like less.

The Raptors also recalled Nigel Hayes from Raptors 905. This is the final day on his second 10-day deal, so this would be the team’s last chance to get a look at him before making a decision on whether to keep him for the remainder of the season or not. Hayes made two brief garbage-time appearances for the Raptors and has played five games with Raptors 905. He’s fit in well from a personality/character perspective, but the sample to evaluate him on intimately has been small and noisy. The decision for the 15th spot likely comes down to him and Malcolm Miller, and Miller’s at least been able to show something at the NBA level to make his case. It wouldn’t be surprising to see Hayes get a few minutes here to do the same.

UPDATE: Hayes is inactive, so the Raptors have gotten all the look they’re going to get before their decision.

PG: Kyle Lowry, Fred VanVleet, Delon Wright, Lorenzo Brown
SG: DeMar DeRozan, Norman Powell
SF: OG Anunoby, C.J. Miles
PF: Serge Ibaka, Pascal Siakam, (Nigel Hayes)
C: Jonas Valanciunas, Jakob Poeltl, Lucas Nogueira
OUT: None
TBD: None
905: Malachi Richardson, Alfonzo McKinnie, Malcolm Miller

Clippers updates
The Clippers only have 11 players on hand for this one, as Tyrone Wallace and C.J. Williams won’t rejoin the team from Agua Caliente until the Clippers return home Monday. With Patrick Beverley, Avery Bradley, and Danilo Gallinari still out and Sean Kilpatrick’s 10-day deal expired, there aren’t a lot of reinforcements here. Is this the day Sindarius Thornwell exacts revenge on behalf of the franchise for Terrence Ross’ 51-point game? It certainly could be. The Clippers are flush with Gerald Henderson Award candidates who figure to get heavy run in Doc Rivers’ 10-man rotation. At the same time, old friend Lou Williams may opt to do all the damage himself.

As noted in the pre-game, there’s a real lack of familiarity here, with very few lineups that have played significant minutes together and even fewer who have done so to a positive result. The Clippers have dropped five of their last six games to fall back in the Western Conference playoff race, and Boban Marjanovic is the only player still on the roster with a net rating better than plus-2 during that stretch (plus-27.7 in 29 minutes). Wesley Johnson and Thornewell are the only other players with even slight positive marks, with most of the rotation sitting in the double-digit negatives. It’s been a tough two weeks.

PG: Milos Teodosic, Jawun Evans
SG: Austin Rivers, Lou Williams
SF: Wesley Johnson, Sindarius Thornwell
PF: Tobias Harris, Sam Dekker
C: DeAndre Jordan, Montrezl Harrell, Boban Marjanovic
OUT: Patrick Beverley, Avery Bradley, Danilo Gallinari
TBD: None
Agua Caliente: Tyrone Wallace, C.J. Williams

Assorted

Raptors 905 finished their season on Saturday and will now host a one-game first-round playoff series at Hershey Centre on Wednesday at 7:30. With the Raptors at home, the 905 are expecting to have their full contingent of available two-ways and assignees.
Over at The Athletic, I broke down some of the late-game decision making from Wednesday.
- Also at The Athletic, I wrote about the Raptors slowing down the pace some since the All-Star break.
- William Lou wrote about the Serge Ibaka situation.
The Last Two Minute Report from Raptors-Nets shows the following:
- A missed defensive three seconds on Jarrett Allen (1:44)
- That’s it! A second close game in a row with only one small correction. They’re getting cleaner (or less egregiously dirty!).
Speaking of referees, this happened yesterday:

Raptors are meeting with Monty McCutchen before practice today as part of McCutchen's tour around the NBA to improve the player/official lines of communication.
— Blake Murphy (@BlakeMurphyODC) March 24, 2018

Applications for the Wayne Embry Fellowship open up on April 2. Sam, this year’s fellow, seems to be having a blast and learning a lot.
Happy birthday to Kyle Lowry!