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It’s tempting to assume the Raptors are all the way back. Why not? They absolutely exploded in the second half of Friday night’s Kings game, with most everyone who played making some sort of positive impact. What’s more, Toronto did it without Kyle Lowry, the team’s most obvious engine of success. Taken altogether, it’s not hard to believe that energy could now carry over into tonight’s showdown with the Golden State Warriors.
These are not the capital-W Warriors, but they still employ a healthy Steph Curry and Draymond Green, which counts for a lot. In fact, the team currently has a better record than Toronto’s, achieving their 5-4 standing with a few recent big wins — including, ah-ha, an explosive outing against those aforementioned Kings, and a solid victory over the Clippers on Friday in which Curry put up 38 points. Keep that in mind.
The Raptors, meanwhile, are also preparing themselves for their first back-to-back of the season. (They’ll be playing in Portland tomorrow night.) To help those efforts, Lowry will be back tonight, but as coach Nick Nurse stated before the game: another change to the starting lineup is coming. (I’ve made my guess below — which has now been updated.) This has been the theme of the early season, with Pascal Siakam slowly finding his footing, Lowry and Fred VanVleet doing what they can, and the rest of the roster varying wildly. Nurse and the Raptors have been searching.
Which is why, again, it’s hard not to give into that earlier temptation and assume they’ve found something. And that maybe we’re going to see it again tonight. In any case, here’s Satbir’s preview on Raptors-Warriors from this morning.
Below are the updated game details. Now, let’s awtch.
Where to Watch
Sportsnet at 8:30pm EST
Lineups:
Toronto [Updated] – Kyle Lowry, Fred VanVleet, Norman Powell, OG Anunoby, Pascal Siakam, Chris Boucher
Golden State – Steph Curry, Kelly Oubre, Andrew Wiggins, Draymond Green, James Wiseman
Injuries:
Toronto – Patrick McCaw (knee – out)
Golden State – Andrew Wiggins (foot – questionable), Kevon Looney (hip – questionable), Alen Smailagic (knee – out), Klay Thompson (Achilles – out), Marquese Chriss (leg – out)