Game thread: Toronto Raptors at Atlanta Hawks

The Toronto Raptors are coming off of one of their biggest, guttiest wins of the season — their triple-OT thriller against the Miami Heat. But the NBA schedule is unrelenting, especially in a pandemic, which means tonight’s matchup against the Atlanta Hawks kicks off a stretch of four games in five nights. Yikes!

Health and rest will be critical this week, obviously. To say the Raptors’ starters all played heavy minutes on Saturday would be a huge understatement, and asking them to sustain such a pace through this stretch is pretty unreasonable — and will only lead to more injuries, which will only lead to heavier minutes, which will only lead to.... you get it.

So let’s hope someone from the Nick Nurse’s bench steps up tonight!

On the updates side, the Raptors are still without Khem Birch, and David Johnson and Isaac Bonga are with the 905, but the team is healthy beyond that. In late-breaking news from the other side, Trae Young is officially out tonight a sore shoulder.

It’s a shame we won’t get to see Trae, but that’s no reason to take the Hawks lightly — they’re deep, and they’ve own seven straight games! Enjoy the game.

Where to Watch:

TSN, 7:30 PM ET

Lineups:

Toronto – Fred VanVleet, Gary Trent Jr., Scottie Barnes, Pascal Siakam, OG Anunoby

Atlanta — Delon Wright, Kevin Huerter, De’Andre Hunter, John Collins, Clint Capela

Injuries:

Toronto — Khem Birch (nose – out), Goran Dragic (personal – out)

Atlanta — Trae Young (shoulder – out), De’Andre Hunter (ankle – probable)