The Toronto Raptors won both games on a short two-game road trip earlier this week, and they return home on Saturday against the Boston Celtics looking to snap a four-game home losing skid in a game on TSN.
Toronto battled to a gritty 111-105 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday – a game which the Bucks were missing superstar forward Giannis Antetokounmpo.
That followed up a 106-96 victory over the Miami Heat on Monday.
Brandon Ingram was the star against Milwaukee, hitting four-of-six three-point shot attempts and finishing with a game-high 29 points with eight rebounds. Scottie Barnes finished with 24 points and 11 rebounds for a double-double.
That output on Thursday elevated Ingram’s points per game total on the year to 22.0, as the forward – who the Raptors acquired from the New Orleans Pelicans at last year’s trade deadline while he was rehabilitating an ankle injury that cost him the entire season – has been a shining addition to the team in his first action with Toronto.
Former Rookie of the Year and one-time All-Star Barnes has been as reliable as ever since the Raptors selected him with the fourth overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, as he’s averaging 19.8 points, 8.0 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game in his fifth season.
But the Raptors are still awaiting the return of a key cob in the offence, as guard RJ Barrett has been out since November 23 with a knee sprain. Barrett began return to play activities earlier this week, the team announced.
In 17 games this season, Barrett has averaged 19.4 points per game, and the team has a record of 12-5 in games he started. Without Barrett in the lineup, the Raptors are 5-6.
Toronto’s four-game home losing streak earlier in December came during a busy moment in the schedule, where the team played seven games in an 11-day span. Since losing to the New York Knicks to be eliminated from the NBA Cup on Dec. 9, the Raptors have played just two games in 10 days.
“Seven games in 11 days. We definitely need [some rest]. We need to get healthy,” said point guard Jamal Shead after the loss to New York, where he started in place of Immannuel Quickley (illness). “RJ, Quick, just our entire team, we just need our bodies to get right.”
Ingram examined the season in a broader sense at the end of the game against the Knicks. “One big lesson that I take away from the course of the season is we have little margin for error, especially when we have guys in and out of the lineup,” he said. “We’ve had RJ out of the lineup. We had Quick out of the lineup today. So as guys come in and step up, we have just a little margin for error in games especially when we play really, really good teams.”
The Celtics (16-11) fit the mould of a “really good team” that Ingram described. Boston was expected to struggle to compete this season without superstar forward Jayson Tatum, who is expected to miss the entire season while rehabbing an Achilles tear suffered in last year’s playoffs. In addition, the Celtics lost key contributors in centres Al Horford (signed with Golden State) and Kristaps Porzingis (traded to Atlanta Hawks), as well as guard Jrue Holiday (traded to Portland Trail Blazers).
But on the back of Jaylen Brown’s career-high 29.3 points per game, the Celtics have stayed near the top of the Eastern Conference standings. Brown has scored 30 or more points in six straight contests – including 30 against the Raptors in a 121-113 victory on Dec. 7.
The Celtics have dominated the Raptors in recent years, winning 12 of the last 13 matchups between the two sides dating back to the beginning of the 2022-23 season.