Well, it probably can’t go worse than Wednesday, right? Two days after a stellar first quarter quickly turned into a 23-point deficit that the team couldn’t surmount, the Toronto Raptors will get to try their hand against the Washington Wizards once again, this time in D.C. What, exactly, the Raptors need to do differently beyond “play better” is unclear, because when the effort for an entire quarter leaves players and coaches alike scratching their heads, finding a starting point is difficult. The Raptors talked like a team hungry to avenge that performance quickly over the last few days, but until they stop getting behind by double-digits in every game, it’s going to be tough to trust that the energy is coming night-to-night.
“I just thought that the force we played with, the lack of speed that we played with wasn’t there the same way when we won four in a row,” Dwane Casey said Thursday. “For whatever reason, and the reason’s not important, we didn’t play with the same speed on either end of the floor.”
Now, the Raptors find themselves in need of a victory to secure the season series and seeding tiebreaker. More than that, they need a victory to make sure that tiebreaker would even matter, as they’re at some risk of further sliding down the Eastern Conference pecking order – they’re three back of Boston and one back of Washington entering play, with only one-and-a-half games on Atlanta. However things go without Lowry, the Raptors probably won’t slide further than fifth, but home court is a stated goal, and they’d surely prefer to avoid the 4-5 matchup. That puts increased importance on every game now, particularly ones against the teams directly around them in the standings.
The game tips off at 7 on TSN 1/4/5 and TSN 1050. You can check out the full game preview here.
Raptors updates
Despite no question marks on the injury sheet, the Raptors still find themselves with a somewhat unclear rotation picture after getting run off the floor two days ago. Casey has admitted that he’s still searching for the right post-deadline, post-Kyle Lowry rotations, and that could lead to some experimentation over the next while. Casey was clear that the starting lineup won’t change, but expect some different substitution patterns and staggering as the coaching staff looks to find some semblance of ball movement and balance.
“That’s on me. I’ve got to figure out a better rhythm, a better fit for that group,” Casey said. “They sort of depended a lot on Kyle in that second quarter. It caught up with us last night. We had some struggles in the other games but it caught up with us last night. So we have to make some adjustments. I have to make some adjustments with who’s in there with that second unit to try to make sure we have a good balance of shooting.”
Shooting is just something the bench doesn’t have, so Casey’s likely left to figure out ways to keep Serge Ibaka and Patrick Patterson or DeMarre Carroll with the second unit more often. Jonas Valanciunas should theoretically be a focal point of second units when out there, too, but he simply needs to play better than he has of late for the offense-defense trade-off to make that a worthwhile endeavor. Elsewhere, Casey faces decisions on who is backup point guard and backup center will be night to night, roles that appear to be fluid for the time being.
PG: Cory Joseph, Delon Wright, Fred VanVleet
SG: DeMar DeRozan, Norman Powell
SF: DeMarre Carrol, P.J. Tucker
PF: Serge Ibaka, Patrick Patterson, Pascal Siakam
C: Jonas Valanciunas, Lucas Nogueira, Jakob Poeltl
TBD: None
ASSIGNED: Bruno Caboclo
OUT: Kyle Lowry
Wizards updates
The Wizards signed Brandon Jennings on Wednesday, cutting Danuel House in the process. While the team likely didn’t practice Thursday following a Tuesday-Wednesday back-to-back, there’s probably been enough time to expect Jennings in the lineup on Friday. And given that the only backup point guard on the roster otherwise is Trey Burke, whose absence due to a personal matter Wednesday forced Tomas Satoransky into the role, Jennings figures to see backup minutes right away. Considering a John Wall-less Wizards bench unit destroyed the Raptors two days ago, the addition of absolutely anyone with a pulse to that group figures to make things more challenging. And hey, it’s an easy gig against Toronto – just get Bojan Bogdanovic and Jason Smith the ball and get out of the way. Apparently.
“Try not to be the piece that messes everything up,” Jennings said Friday, courtesy CSN Washington. “Because they’re already on a good run so the hardest thing is to try to come in and try to pick it up.”
I’d expect a bounce-back game from Otto Porter here, too. Normally another Raptor killer, he played well defensively Wednesday but was held scoreless for the first time since 2015. One of the league’s best marksmen this year, he’s always a candidate to feast off of Wall kick-outs, and the Raptors will need to keep a body at home on him with great discipline once again.
PG: John Wall, Brandon Jennings, (Trey Burke)
SG: Bradley Beal, Tomas Satoransky, Sheldon Mack(/McClellan)
SF: Otto Porter, Bojan Bogdanovic, Kelly Oubre
PF: Markieff Morris, Chris McCullough
C: Marcin Gortat, Ian Mahinmi, Jason Smith, (Daniel Ochefu)
TBD: Daniel Ochefu, Trey Burke
ASSIGNED: None
OUT: None
Assorted
- I wrote about the defensive impact of P.J. Tucker and Serge Ibaka, as well as the team’s new closing lineup, over at Vice. There’s some nice insight from Tucker in there. He’s a lot of fun to talk to about the intricacies of NBA defense.
- Related: It doesn’t sound like Tucker cares much for the kind of efforts the team turned in Wednesday.
- Bruno Caboclo remains with Raptors 905, who are on a lengthy road-trip of their own. The 905 tip off at 10 p.m. tonight, and we’ll have the usual recap for you.
- Serge Ibaka was on the latest episode of Woj’s The Vertical Podcast, and it’s a fun listen. Most notably from a basketball perspective, Ibaka reveals that he loves moving up a spot to center. Which is great, because the Raptors have been really good like that and figure to play that way at least a few minutes every game.
The line
The Raptors are 5-point underdogs, which is an interesting 9.5-point swing for Wednesday. Normally, home court accounts for 3, maybe 3.5 points, which would explain 6 or 7 here. The remaining 2.5-3.5 come from the fact that Washington isn’t on a back-to-back this time around,that they added Jennings, and, uhh, that people watched Wednesday’s game. If you like the Raptors to bounce back, getting 5 points – 5.5 in some places – is a nice cushion. The over-under is at 207, coming off of totals of 201 and, earlier in the year, 216.
