The fate of the Toronto Raptors’ season appears to be on the line over the course of their next five games.
Starting with Tuesday night’s matchup with the Brooklyn Nets at 7:30 p.m. ET on Sportsnet ONE, the Raptors will be in for a steep test against some of the NBA’s best.
After their Tuesday night affair, the Raptors will hit the road for four games to take on Western Conference powerhouses Denver Nuggets, Utah Jazz, Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers.
These are big games no matter how you view the Raptors’ current situation.
If you believe the team should look to make the play-in tournament then, with the Raptors only one game back of the Washington Wizards for 10th place in the Eastern Conference, then finding a way through this gauntlet will be paramount to their chances.
On the other hand, if you want to see the team wave the white flag on the season and play for more ping pong balls in the draft lottery, then this kind of stretch ought to make you downright giddy as the expected outcome of all five games are five losses – something that would more than likely kill Toronto’s play-in chances with there being just 11 games left in their season.
So either way, this is an important next five games for the Raptors, and it all begins with their Tuesday matchup against the Nets.
Here’s a look at three things to watch for in the game.
Starting lineup consistency
A funny thing has happened over the Raptors’ last three games: some semblance of consistency among the starting lineup.
So far this season the Raptors have used 23 different starting lineups, with the most consistent starting five playing just 13 games.
Mostly because of bad injury and COVID-19 luck, the Raptors haven’t been able to find much consistency with their starting lineup this season and the results have shown.
However, over Toronto’s last three games head coach Nick Nurse has appeared to have found something in a starting lineup of Kyle Lowry, Fred VanVleet, OG Anunoby, Pascal Siakam and Khem Birch.
This quintet had the start in Toronto’s last three games, bucking the trend where six different starting lineups were used in the previous seven games before the last three games. And, more importantly, they’ve been very productive.
In a very small sample size, this five-man unit has been the Raptors’ best this season at plus-41. Additionally, this group has already played 71 minutes together, the fifth most of all Raptors five-man units this season.
The addition of Birch has apparently brought forth the kind of roster stability that the Raptors have been missing all season long and its not only helped Nurse find a starting group that looks talented and reliable, but has also brought some assuredness to Toronto’s much-maligned bench unit.
With a starting lineup set in stone reserves like rookie Malachi Flynn, Yuta Watanabe and, when he returns healthy, Gary Trent Jr. have a more defined role for themselves and have a better understanding of what they should be looking to do when they’re on the floor.
Again, it’s only been three games, but odds are this starting lineup Nurse has found should figure to be the group he goes with each night from now on as it gives the Raptors the best chance for success on a number of fronts.
Raptors Newsletter
Raptors on the second night of a back-to-back
As if it wasn’t hard enough for the Raptors to be seeing Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant and the Nets Tuesday night, the fact that they’ll be seeing them on the second night of a back-to-back is especially tough because it means Toronto will have to not only find a way past Brooklyn’s tremendous talent, but also the team’s troublesome trend this season of being pretty terrible on the second night of back-to-backs.
The Raptors are just 2-11 this season on the second end of back-to-backs with a minus-8.5 net rating in the contests that includes a dreadful defensive rating of 116.6.
So, if you factor in Brooklyn’s talent, the fact they’re coming into Tuesday’s game with standard one-day rest and the fact the Raptors have been pretty awful in the second half of back-to-backs, you have the recipe for a pretty long night for Toronto.
Injury report
The Raptors have announced that Chris Boucher (left knee sprain), Trent Jr. (left lower leg contusion) and Paul Watson Jr. (left knee tendinitis) will all miss Tuesday’s game. Additionally, rookie Jalen Harris is questionable for the contest with a right hip pointer issue.
This more than likely means there will be more minutes to go around for the likes of Freddie Gillespie — whose second 10-day contract will expire on Wednesday and a decision on whether he’s with the Raptors for the remainder of the season will have to be made — Watanabe, Stanley Johnson and DeAndre’ Bembry as Nurse looks for ways to replace the big minutes that Boucher and Trent would normally play off the bench.
From the Nets’ side, the Raptors are catching a bit of a break as James Harden is unable to play Tuesday. The same will go for Nicolas Claxton, Bruce Brown and former Raptors 905 star Alize Johnson.
Of course, the Raptors still have to contend with the likes of Irving, Durant, Joe Harris, DeAndre Jordan and even Blake Griffin, but any small crack in the armour that can be exploited against this Nets juggernaut is worth pointing out.
