The gauntlet of a schedule the Toronto Raptors are currently in the midst of continues Saturday night as they take on the Utah Jazz at 10:00 p.m. ET on Sportsnet 360.
It’s the start of a gruelling back-to-back set that will see the Raptors play a freshly-returned LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers Sunday.
The Raptors have lost two straight, and with their play-in chances hanging on by a thread, it’s not an exaggeration to say their playoff hopes could be determined by this weekends’ duo of contests.
It won’t be easy, with Saturday’s game, in particular, looking very challenging as the Jazz are not only tied for the best record in the NBA, but also own the best net rating at plus-8.9.
It’s no cakewalk, but this is what’s in front of the Raptors right now and they’ll have no choice but to try to make their way through it successfully.
With just nine games remaining in their regular season, they’re more than likely stuck in no man’s land as they don’t have enough time to truly tank and contend for a top-five draft pick with just nine games remaining in their regular season.
Here’s a look at three things to watch for in Saturday’s game against Utah.
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Have to get one of these back-to-back games
The Raptors are slipping further and further behind the currently No. 10-seeded Washington Wizards and now find themselves three games back of them.
Toronto is currently in a dead tie for 11th in the Eastern Conference with the Chicago Bulls, who are also reeling, but since the Bulls own the tiebreaker between the two teams, the Raptors will still need to leapfrog them entirely to take 11th place, wherein the task of tracking down the Wizards will then need to be tackled.
This is why it’s important that the Raptors find a way to at least spilt this back-to-back.
Next week the Raptors have a potentially very important matchup with the Wizards on Thursday and they can ill afford to drop further than three games back of Washington heading into that showdown.
So the Raptors need at least one — and preferably — two wins here against Utah and Los Angeles in order to keep pace.
Jazz a little vulnerable?
As good as the Jazz have been this season, they’ve appeared a little vulnerable of late.
Utah is just 7-7 in its last 14 games with losses during this span to the Minnesota Timberwolves of all teams.
The Jazz have been bit by the injury bug of late with Mike Conley missing Friday’s game with hamstring tightness and Donovan Mitchell also likely missing Saturday’s contest dealing with an ankle injury.
This is something of a break for the Raptors, who need to find a way to take advantage of a Jazz team that will likely be pretty shorthanded.
What Toronto can’t do, however, is take Utah lightly.
Even without all-stars Conley and Mitchell the Jazz still have weapons like Bojan Bogdanovic and fellow all-star Rudy Gobert, of whom Toronto’s bigs will be in tough against.
“I think [when he’s] on offence, obviously, not to let him roll behind you because they can just throw the ball high on you,” said Raptors centre Khem Birch during shootaround Saturday of the challenges Gobert presents.
“I’m not as tall as him and he has a long wingspan — he’s a tall player. So, obviously, not to allow him to roll in behind.
“And [when he’s] on defence I just feel like not to challenge him at the rim. Just to probably space him out, kind of take him off the dribble or just work on my touch shots more than attacking the rim.”
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Injury report
Unfortunately for the Raptors, as shorthanded as the Jazz could be Saturday night, they will be even more so.
Toronto will be without Chris Boucher (knee sprain), Kyle Lowry (rest), Gary Trent Jr. (leg contusion) and Paul Watson Jr. (knee tendinitis) Saturday.
Neither Boucher nor Watson made the trip out west so their status isn’t surprising. As for the other two, however, it is a little bit disappointing that they’re unable to go.
For Trent, he travelled with the team but it seems like his injury recovery isn’t going as well as the team thought it might.
And in Lowry’s case, a rest day during a back-to-back isn’t necessarily uncommon around the NBA — particularly for 35-year-old veterans with as much mileage on the body as he has — but given the stakes at hand for the Raptors’ season, not having the best player in franchise history out there on Saturday seems odd.
As mentioned before, the Raptors only have nine games left so a concerted effort to tank feels like it’s way too late to do so now.
Unless there really is a huge difference between a No. 8 pick compared to No. 9, resting Lowry in a key game with post-season chances still alive — if even just barely — seems strange.
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