Raptors to be tested by SGA-less Thunder and Wembanyama’s Spurs

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We’re going to learn a lot about the Toronto Raptors over the next three weeks or so.

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A team that’s won just about 60% of its games so far will face legitimate title contenders in six of its next 12 games, starting Tuesday against Oklahoma City and the next night, again at home, against the San Antonio Spurs. There will also be upcoming games against the New York Knicks, who have dominated Toronto for years now, the Detroit Pistons, who pummelled them in the first meeting between the two sides, Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves and to end the stretch one against Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray and the Denver Nuggets.

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Toronto’s gone 1-9 so far against the NBA’s five best teams (but a surprising 3-0 against Cleveland, which entered Monday tied with Denver for fifth overall) and 7-7 against other teams that are over .500 but not in the Top 6.

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At some point they’ll have to start meeting the challenge of the league’s best.

That starts Tuesday, though the reigning champions will be without MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, meaning he’ll miss his lone homecoming game of the year. The Thunder also won’t have all-star wing Jalen Williams, who has missed about half the year due to various injuries, scoring guard Ajay Mitchell and possibly defensive specialist Alex Caruso. The Raptors will still have to be ready for a strong opponent, as the Thunder just handed Cleveland its first loss of the James Harden Era even without all those key contributors and is 6-3 this year without Canada’s finest, Gilgeous-Alexander and are 25-7 without Williams.

Toronto will get Scottie Barnes back after he missed Sunday’s win at Milwaukee for personal reasons.

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The Raptors shocked the Thunder at Oklahoma City on Jan. 25 despite an off-game offensively from Barnes, but he stepped up with some game-saving defensive plays, including a masterful late block on Chet Holmgren. Immanuel Quickley led the way in that one, with RJ Barrett also stepping up as Brandon Ingram was bothered but he smothering Thunder defence.

P’S AND Q’S

Quickley is coming off a great game in Milwaukee, in part because centre Jakob Poeltl looked as good as he has in months. Poeltl complements Quickley extremely well. The point guard has averaged 18 points and 6.4 assists and shot 47.5% from the field and 35.2% from three in the 23 games Poeltl has also played this season. In the 31 games Poeltl has missed, Quickley’s numbers drop to 16.7 points, 5.8 assists, 42.7% from the field, but oddly, 39.8% on three-pointers (yet his true shooting percentage dips when Poeltl is out, even with more three-point success).

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While Toronto will have Barnes back Tuesday against the Thunder, Poeltl will be rested. Poeltl, Collin Murray-Boyles and little-used Trayce Jackson-Davis will have their hands full with Spurs phenom Victor Wembanyama the next night and since Poeltl is still getting back to 100% after his layoff, sitting him Tuesday makes sense

San Antonio is one of three teams with 40 victories already. The Thunder lead the NBA with 44 wins, though Detroit (who Toronto will play twice in March) has a slightly better winning percentage.

AROUND THE RIM

With away wins in six of the last seven games, per stats guru Keerthika Uthayakumar, Toronto is eight games over .500 on the road for the first time since April 1, 2022. It’s also been nearly four full years (also April of 2022) since the team was 11 games over .500 overall … Four different players have led the Thunder in scoring in the eight games Gilgeous-Alexander has missed with his injury, including under the radar trade deadline pickup Jared McCain, who was oddly moved by Philadelphia. He’s averaged 11.3 points and shot 47.8% from three in six games with the Thunder. The rich get richer.

@WolstatSun

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