Toronto begins a four-game road trip against the Phoenix Suns coming off of their worst loss of the season.
My apologies to those who watched the Raptors’ last outing. In better news, things can only go up from there, right?
Preview: Toronto Raptors vs Phoenix Suns — Start time, Injuries and more
Tonight will likely be a better game, although the Raptors are still missing many players. Scottie Barnes and Jakob Poeltl both underwent successful surgeries this week and will likely be out for the remainder of the season. Bruce Brown remains out with inflammation in his knee as well as Ochai Agbaji and Jalen McDaniels landing on the injury report today listed as questionable to play tonight.
miss his third consecutive game due to an ankle injury. The Suns will also be missing some depth in their rotation with Nassir Little, Damion Lee and Josh Okogie all listed as out as well.
Yet, the Suns’ injury troubles did not matter the other night against the Denver Nuggets when they beat the reigning champions in overtime. Two-time Finals MVP Kevin Durant led the way with 35 points while Grayson Allen was hot from deep, making his first eight three-point attempts of the night and ending with 28 points.
With Scottie Barnes out, RJ Barrett likely finds himself in an unfavourable matchup attempting to guard Durant, who stands five inches taller than the Canadian wing.
Size will continue to be a problem throughout the lineup for Toronto. Yes, their tallest listed big, Kelly Olynyk, is listed at 6’11”, just one inch shorter than Phoenix centre Jusuf Nurkic, but their play styles are very different. Olynyk is not known as an interior defender, or even interior scorer for that matter. The Canadian big makes his money as a stretch big and playmaker from the elbow rather than banging bodies down low.
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Nurkic is the exact opposite, as he’s known for his interior defensive presence and scoring, while also having the ability to stretch the floor. The Phoenix centre fouled out while guarding Nikola Jokic in the aforementioned win over the Nuggets, but posted 31 REBOUNDS against Oklahoma City this past Sunday. The tally tied Kevin Love in 2010 for the most rebounds in a single game since the turn of the 21st century.
It’ll take a complete team effort to shutdown the incredible scoring of both Durant and Bradley Beal, while also having to worry about Nurkic in the paint. The young, shorthanded Raptors have their work cut out for them as they hope to have a good start to their Western road trip.
After a season-worst 41 point loss at the hands of the New Orleans Pelicans, the shorthanded Toronto Raptors head out for a four game road trip that begins tonight in Phoenix.
It’ll be the second matchup of the season between these two teams, and they both look remarkably different from last time around.
None of Toronto’s starters from their November 29th win over Phoenix at home will be in the Raptors lineup tonight. The only Raptors who appeared in that game and may see the court tonight are Gary Trent Jr., Chris Boucher and Jalen McDaniels. I wouldn’t hold my breath on seeing the latter two, as even fans chanting to see Boucher in game action wasn’t enough to get them some playing time in the rout to the Pelicans.
