Tonight, we play the Toronto Raptor, who are 46-19 right now, and are coming off a two game skid. They have lost three of their last five, which hasn't happened in a week since December 7th-14th for them. Toronto are 6th in offensive rating and 7th in defensive rating, and are currently sat at 2nd place in the Eastern conference. They are a very very good team, and what's more, they are healthy: they have precisely one player out on injury, and that's Fred VanVleet. They have Lowry, Kawhi, Gasol, Siakam, all healthy and ready to go.
By contrast we have: Anthony Davis on a minutes restriction, Jrue Holiday out, E'twaun Moore out, Bertans not here yet, and Okafor questionable. And in case it even matters, Blueitt is still out.
So it's pretty easy to predict this is as a loss (hopefully), but there are some real good positives. We should be able to see Jackson, Diallo, and Kenrich play heavy minutes, together. Now, I'm pretty sure that will lead to some awful defense at times, as Jackson doesn't really have the consistent defense yet, and probably some stagnant offense. The only guy we have right now that is able to regularly create his own shot is Randle, and he isn't a great playmaker for others, not does he naturally pass out well from his drives.
Hopefully this will be a fun game mainly for its demonstration of youth and potential. In terms of actual performance, I'm expecting us to get clobbered.
Let's go and #DoItBig!