The Toronto Raptors are traveling to Barclays center today to face off against the Brooklyn Nets for the third team this season and they are looking to get their first win against Kevin Durant and company. The first game was a down to the wire spectacle that featured an epic clash between Kevin Durant and Pascal Siakam along with some heroics from Kyrie Irving for an overall fun game. The second matchup was when the Raptors were going through their injury woes which the Nets took full advantage of and blew Toronto out. Tonight’s matchup will be a more competitive game similar to the first one.
The Nets are going to be without their best perimeter defender in Ben Simmons for the next few games including this one so already the Raptors lives are made easier on offense. Since Pascal Siakams return the Raptors offense has looked much better and without Ben Simmons it’s going to be a very tall task for the Nets to find a primary defender worth his salt against Pascal. In the same breath though, Kevin Durant has been on a tear recently that is awe-inspiring. In his last 3 games Kevin Durant is averaging 38.3 points shooting a staggering 68.8% from the field and 57.1% from three.
No doubt Toronto will try to get the ball out of his hands as much as possible but the Nets have another star who can potentially eat off of these opportunities in Kyrie Irving. Fred VanVleet hasn’t been quite the same as an on ball defender this season so we could see Kyrie try to go at him a lot this game but the Raptors always do a good job providing ample help on drives. Overall the theme of this game is simple, Brooklyn has a weak defense and gives up a lot of points to everyone but they stay in and win games due to the elite offensive production they can put out and today’s game shouldn’t be any different. Toronto has their team back from injury so they should be able to punish Brooklyn on offense a lot but it’ll come down to can they stop Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and company from putting points on the board.
Raptors Lineup
Precious Achiuwa out with an ankle injury Otto Porter Jr. (foot) remains out.
PG: Fred VanVleet, Dalano Banton, Malachi Flynn
SG: OG Anunoby,Gary Trent Jr.Jeff Dowtin Jr., Ron Harper Jr.
SF: Scottie Barnes, Justin Champagnie
PF: Pascal Siakam, Juancho Hernangomez
C: Thaddeus Young, Christian Koloko
Nets Lineup
Yuta Watanabe(hamstring), Ben Simmons(calf)
PG: Seth Curry, Patty Mills
SG: Kyrie Irving, Joe Harris, Cam Thomas
SF: Royce O’neal,, TJ Warren
PF: Kevin Durant, Kessler Edwards
C: Nic Claxton, Dayron Sharpe
The Line
Brooklyn is favored -1.5, O/U is 223
Gameday: Raptors @ Nets
Toronto looks to capture their first win against Brooklyn this season.
