The entire country of Canada will have an early start to their sports viewing experience on Sunday, and the Toronto Raptors could surely benefit from leaning into the hockey pride sweeping the nation.<\/p>\n
After the Olympic gold medal game between Canada and the United States, the Raptors are set to take on the Milwaukee Bucks. With the province of Ontario permitting the sale of alcohol as early as 6 a.m EST, the Raptors have a tough act to follow for a likely rowdy audience, regardless of the outcome on the ice.<\/p>\n
But ahead of tip-off, scheduled for 3:30 p.m. EST on TSN, it\u2019s worth noting that the Raptors and the Canadian men\u2019s hockey team share surprising narratives and traits headed into their respective matchups.<\/p>\n
Here are three storylines to watch out for.<\/p>\n
Life without their leader<\/p>\n
With the team declaring Scottie Barnes out due to personal reasons, the Raptors will be without their All-Star for the second time this season. Similar to Sidney Crosby for Team Canada, Barnes is the heartbeat of the team. The last time Barnes missed action was during a 125-117 loss to the Boston Celtics on Jan. 9. Toronto is 4-14 without Barnes over the last two seasons.<\/p>\n
Even against a Bucks team without Giannis Antetokounmpo, losing Barnes is a big deal. His ability to ignite opportunities in transition off defensive stops is reminiscent of the Edmonton Oilers\u2019 Connor McDavid launching himself out of a cannon through the neutral zone. Passing lanes materialize out of nowhere when Barnes has the ball in his hands, even when the defence seemingly has the advantage. While the Bucks aren\u2019t as imposing defensively without Antetokounmpo, they did look rejuvenated in their 139-118 win against the Pelicans on Feb. 20, finishing with nine steals and eight blocks.<\/p>\n
On the defensive end, Barnes is more like Colorado Avalanche defenceman Cale Makar. They\u2019ve got a similar defensive genius that is leveraged into offensive wizardry. The Bucks have a duo of streaky scorers in Kevin Porter Jr. and Cam Thomas. Without Barnes, it\u2019ll be up to perimeter defenders like Jamal Shead and Ja\u2019Kobe Walter to help keep them in check. Porter and Thomas combined for 52 points, while shooting 75 per cent from three against New Orleans.<\/p>\n
A shaky last line of defence<\/p>\n
Jakob Poeltl has officially played in back-to-back games for the first time since Dec. 15. Seeing the Austrian on the court is a welcome sight, but there\u2019s something visibly off about Poeltl. Whether it\u2019s due to his back injury or because he\u2019s still ramping up to his usual workload, Poeltl doesn\u2019t look the same.<\/p>\n
What he\u2019s supposed to be is the steady rock of the team. A reliable and calming presence on the defensive end and someone who takes pressure off the offence. In many ways, both good and bad, he\u2019s the Jordan Binnington of the Raptors. How far the Raptors go this year will be heavily determined by what Poeltl has left in the tank. His ability to grind out possessions in close games, and especially in contests that slow the pace down, extends Toronto\u2019s runway for mistakes.<\/p>\n
Even with calf strains potentially holding out Myles Turner in addition to Antetokounmpo, the Raptors will still need Poeltl to help deal with the athletic Jericho Sims and pesky Bobby Portis. Sims recorded two blocks against the Pelicans, while Portis finished with a double-double (17 points, 11 rebounds).<\/p>\n
It\u2019s tricky to find an apt hockey comparison for Brandon Ingram. The one that makes the most sense would be a combination of the expectations that come with the Colorado Avalanche\u2019s Nathan MacKinnon and the explosive offensive volume generated by the San Jose Sharks\u2019 Macklin Celebrini. Unlike MacKinnon, who isn\u2019t 100 per cent at the Olympics, Ingram has luckily avoided any season-derailing injuries with the Raptors. But the two share a similar burden this weekend, with the forwards having to step their game up in the absence of their co-star\u2019s unavailability.<\/p>\n
Ingram dropped a cool 31 points against the Bulls on Feb. 19, including a mid-range jumper that helped seal the win. One day later, MacKinnon scored the game-winning goal to send Canada to the gold-medal game.<\/p>\n
Stage presence is everything as the playoffs loom, and Ingram will need to lean on his confidence to keep the Raptors in the Eastern Conference race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The entire country of Canada will have an early start to their sports viewing experience on Sunday, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":492485,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[49,48,3673,121489,197694,121490,3302,197695],"class_list":{"0":"post-492484","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-general","11":"tag-raptors-analysis","12":"tag-raptors-schedule","13":"tag-raptors-scores","14":"tag-toronto","15":"tag-toronto-raptors-discussion"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=492484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=492484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=492484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=492484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}