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It's been a tough week for the Raptors, even after ending their three game losing streak to the Lakers last night. In the second quarter of that game, Jonas Valanciunas took an incidental shot to the hand by Kobe Bryant. It was a nothing play, yet somehow managed to do damage.
X-rays on Jonas Valanciunas' left hand revealed a fracture of the fourth metacarpal. He is out and expected to undergo further tests. #rtz
— RaptorsMR (@RaptorsMR) November 21, 2015
After the game, Jonas spoke about the injury:
An injury to Valanciunas has long been described as a worst case scenario for Toronto. Only Kyle Lowry means more to the team in terms of pure production (well OK, DeRozan's in the mix too). With JV out, the options up front for the Raptors narrow considerably. Last night, it meant a bunch of minutes for Bismack Biyombo. Dwane Casey also tried a small ball lineup featuring Cory Joseph, Terrence Ross, James Johnson, Patrick Patterson and DeMarre Carroll. It looked effective, but as has been mentioned, against the 2-10 Lakers, it's difficult to extrapolate any serious conclusions in the small sample size of minutes.
There's also--and I don't want to sound too excited here--an opportunity for Lucas Nogueira to get some minutes. As Casey himself confirmed:
"I'm sure we'll call Lucas up from the D-League." Dwane Casey spoke about his options after JV's injury. Watch: https://t.co/bgNxvD1SrO
— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) November 21, 2015
While we don't have any update yet as to how long Valanciunas will be out, the injury is on his non-shooting hand, which suggests it may not be for the lengthiest of times. Still, some interesting choices will have to be made for the Raptors going forward.
Their next game is this Sunday against the Clippers in Los Angeles. We'll see what kind of lineups are rolled out.
What do you guys think the Raptors should do?
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