Every game is critical for the Toronto Raptors at this stage of the season as the Eastern Conference playoff picture comes into focus. They’re in a fight to hang onto a top-six spot and guarantee themselves a playoff berth and avoid the Play-In Tournament.
Toronto wraps up their five-game road trip tonight in Los Angeles against the Clippers in their only stop at Intuit Dome this season.
Watch the matchup LIVE Wednesday evening at 10:30 p.m. ET/7:30 p.m. onTSN1/4/5, TSN.ca and the TSN App.
The Raps enter play Wednesday at 40-31, good for fifth place in the East. They have just a half-game cushion over the Atlanta Hawks in the sixth spot and a one-and-a-half-game lead on the Philadelphia 76ers, who would be the top Play-In seed if the season ended today.
Avoiding the tournament isn’t the only thing at stake for the Raps. The Orlando Magic, Charlotte Hornets and Miami Heat all sit at 38-34, meaning Toronto has just a two-and-a-half-game advantage on the 10th seed. The team seeded 10th would have to win two Play-In road games to secure a playoff berth.
The Raptors began their road trip with a win in Chicago against the Bulls last Wednesday, but lost a tight one in Denver two nights later and were blown out against the Phoenix Suns on Sunday for their second straight loss.
Head coach Darko Rajakovic was no fan of his team’s effort against a Suns team that game into the matchup having lost five in a row.
[Phoenix] had much more urgency tonight from the jump ball. They set a tone, and usually that’s what we do to teams. Tonight, we did not do it. We did not do it to the level of commitment and with enough respect to the game. We did not have that urgency from the start of the game,” Rajakovic told reporters after the Suns’ 120-98 victory.
“I tried a lot of things tonight, and we failed. We did not have it tonight.”
The Raptors steadied the ship the next night in Utah, picking up an easy 143-127 win over the Jazz. Their 143 points scored was their second-highest total of the season, falling just two short of their effort in Golden State on Jan. 20.
Their offensive output was even notable on a historical scale. The Raps’ 143 points were their third-highest single-game total ever and their 49 assists shattered the previous franchise high of 44, according to TSN’s Josh Lewenberg.
All this came with Toronto down three starters as Brandon Ingram, Jakob Poeltl and Immanuel Quickley did not play the second night of the back-to-back. That trio of Ingram (heel), Quickley (plantar fasciitis) and Poeltl (injury management – back) is officially questionable for Wednesday’s game in L.A.
Toronto dropped their only meeting with the Clippers this season in overtime on Jan. 16 at Scotiabank Arena. However, that was a largely different Clipper team than the one they’ll see tonight.
James Harden led the way for the visitors with 31 points and Ivica Zubac chipped in with 16 points and 14 rebounds in L.A.’s 121-117 win. Both Harden and Zubac were then traded the next month ahead of the trade deadline.
On the flip side, former Raptors star Kawhi Leonard did not play in his lone trip back to Toronto this season due to an ankle sprain. Leonard is also questionable for Wednesday’s game with an ankle injury, but he did play 25 minutes in the Clippers’ lopsided win over the Milwaukee Bucks Monday evening.
The two-time Finals MVP has sat out two of the Clippers past five games.