Toronto's problem is the injury list, and game day hasn't made it any shorter. Scottie Barnes (groin) is out again, which makes 3 straight games he's missed. Kawhi Leonard is still reconditioning his knee and won't get another update for a week. Nate Bittle is still out with his foot injury. The questionable group is unchanged heading into tonight: Immanuel Quickley (hamstring), who has missed the last 2, plus Collin Murray-Boyles and Trayce Jackson-Davis, both sick. Those 3 calls probably won't come until close to tip.
We already saw this version of the Raptors against Memphis. With Barnes, Quickley and Murray-Boyles all out, Toronto lost 118-102 at home. The thin rotation ran out of legs, and the Grizzlies won the 4th quarter 29-21 to pull away. If Murray-Boyles and Jackson-Davis both sit, Toronto's frontcourt gets even thinner. That's a bad thing to bring into a game against a Boston team that just made 8 threes through one guy.
Toronto hasn't been helpless this year. The Raptors went into the Clippers' building and won 125-118, and they beat Milwaukee by 14 on the road. But they've gone back and forth for 2 weeks, and the losses to Denver and Memphis were both by double digits. Boston's lone slip in its last 5 was a 109-93 loss in Houston, and the Celtics have looked better every game since. The Raptors' realistic path is to get Quickley back, hope the illnesses clear up, and turn Boston's tired legs into a close game late.
So it comes down to 2 things nobody knows yet: how much Boston has left on the 2nd night, and how many of Toronto's 3 questionable players actually suit up. If the answers are "plenty" and "not many," this looks a lot like the last 3 Celtics games. If Quickley plays and the illnesses clear, Toronto at least has the bodies to make it a game.
