The Toronto Raptors are scheduled to face off against the Portland Trail Blazers at home and they could be doing it without their star player potentially. Scottie Banres has been ruled questionable for this game with a hand injury. More specifically, the injury has been described as a finger joint contusion, and could mean that Toronto will have to win without Barnes, Immanuel Quickley, and Jakob Poeltl tonight.
Even with Barnes being questionable, Toronto is still sticking to their late season rest pattern of sitting Quickley and Poeltl every other game, but now without Barnes potentially, this could spell disaster for their chances at winning tonight, which in all honesty, they’re probably hoping for.
Barnes is having somewhat of a down year offensively, posting 19.2 points per game but on a career low 44 percent from the field, and a career low 26 percent from three. Toronto’s defense will no doubt suffer with the absence of Barnes, as his presence around the rim and all of the court provided Toronto with a great weapon to mess up their opponents actions, and clean up breakdowns from his teammates.
With all these injuries, RJ Barrett could be the only starter that Toronto has tonight, and his burden will be extremely heavy having to essentially carry lineups full of young players during this game. The young players have been getting plenty of minutes without Barnes lately, and there have been some great moments but also some awful moments as well.
It will be revealed in a few hours whether or not Barnes will suit up for Toronto tonight, but going against a Trail Blazers team that has some solid talent on their roster, being without Barnes could spell defeat.
