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The 2018-19 Toronto Raptors just can’t seem to escape the injury bug.
Patrick McCaw is the latest Raptor to go down, as the team announced on Saturday morning that his right thumb will be in a splint for three weeks following an injury in the first half against the Knicks on Thursday:
Patrick McCaw will be in a splint for his sprained thumb for three weeks and will then be re-evaluated. So take him out of your round one rotation hypotheticals, I guess.
— Blake Murphy (@BlakeMurphyODC) March 30, 2019
The team will re-evaluate him after that time period, meaning he’ll be sidelined well into the first round of the playoffs.
This is the third thumb injury to sideline a Raptor this year, after Jonas Valanciunas went down in December after dislocating his left thumb, and Fred VanVleet missed more than a month after injuring ligaments in his left thumb in February.
That’s a lot of thumb injuries for one team! What the heck are these guys doing in their downtime? Are they doing push-ups on their thumbs? Thumb wrestling? Too many late night 2K sessions?
The potentially good news for the Raptors and McCaw is that both Valanciunas and VanVleet have come back stronger than ever. Valanciunas — who was traded to Memphis about 20 minutes before he was set to return — is playing the best ball of his career for the Grizzlies. VanVleet has been a huge difference-maker and steadying hand for the Raptors since he came back. So what will McCaw do? Gain more confidence in his shooting? Run around even faster on defense?
In the meantime the injury will give Norman Powell and Jeremy Lin more opportunities to secure their role as the ninth man in Toronto’s playoff rotation.
McCaw has appeared in 26 games for the Raptors and is averaging 2.7 points and 1.7 rebounds per game.