Game thread: Toronto Raptors at Denver Nuggets

After a heartwarming win over the Phoenix Suns, the Toronto Raptors won’t have the opportunity to run back the same starting lineup tonight. On the other side, though, the Denver Nuggets have issues of their own.

The big news coming into tonight’s second night of a back-to-back is that the Raptors will be without Fred VanVleet, who will sit out for maintenance on his recent knee injury.

Nick Nurse said in pre-game comments that the Raptors aren’t holding VanVleet out of back-to-backs at large, but taking it on a case-by-case basis. Given the highlights of VanVleet chasing around Devin Booker yesterday, I guess it’s a fair decision to make tonight.

The Nuggets, meanwhile, will be leaning more on their MVP candidate tonight as Aaron Gordon is out due to a foot injury. Neither team has set a starting lineup as of writing this.

EDIT: Well! It’s Armoni Brooks time.

For now, as Josh Kern put it this morning, prepare for a broadcast full of “altitude”, “back-to-back” and “tough” as Toronto looks to put down what would be their most impressive two days of the season.

Here are the game details.

Where to Watch:

TSN, 9:00 PM ET

Lineups:

Toronto – Armoni Brooks, Scottie Barnes, Gary Trent Jr., Pascal Siakam, Precious Achiuwa

Denver – Monte Morris, Will Barton, Davon Reed, Jeff Green, Nikola Jokic

Injuries:

Toronto – Fred VanVleet (knee – out), Malachi Flynn (hamstring – out), OG Anunoby (finger – out)

Denver – Jamal Murray (knee – out), Michael Porter Jr. (back – out), Vlatko Cancer (foot – out), Aaron Gordon (foot – out), Zeke Nnaji (knee – out)