TORONTO – It’s one step forward, one back on the subject of injuries for the Toronto Raptors.
All-star Scottie Barnes was upgraded to questionable by the Raptors on Wednesday after he participated in a full-contact practice at OVO Athletic Centre. Starting centre Jakob Poeltl, nevertheless, was ruled out for Thursday’s game against the visiting Brooklyn Nets.
Barnes missed two games after spraining his right ankle after blocking a shot in a 113-108 loss to the Latest York Knicks on Dec. 9. Because it turned out, the autumn when he hurt his ankle was far worse than it looked.
“After those first two days, all the pieces began to only calm down a bit bit, began to feel lots higher,” Barnes told media after practice. “I began to have the opportunity to walk on it more. So just daily, it just began to feel higher.
“It took a bit little bit of time, but I’m so completely satisfied that wasn’t as serious as I believed it was.”
Barnes is averaging 20.6 points, 8.4 rebounds and seven.4 assists over 14 games this season. Those numbers are higher than last season when he had 19.9 points, 8.2 rebounds and 6.1 assists per game to earn his first-ever NBA All-Star Game appearance.
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He’s also a defensive force, with 1.3 steals and 0.7 blocks per game this season.
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But injuries have plagued him over the past 12 months, including breaking his finger last season after a teammate unintentionally kicked his hand and breaking an orbital bone after catching an errant elbow to his face earlier this campaign.
“Can’t do nothing about it, to be honest,” said Barnes on the freak accidents. “You understand, all the pieces happens for a reason. I got hurt, so be it, take that time without work and just come back and just got to learn from it.”
Poeltl, forward Bruce Brown (post-surgery reconditioning) and guard Immanuel Quickley (partially torn UCL) are listed as out against the Nets.
Poeltl suffered a bilateral groin strain within the Raptors’ 122-121 loss to the Chicago Bulls on Monday and is taken into account day-to-day. There is no such thing as a timetable for Brown or Quickley’s return.
“Jak is playing on really high level this whole season, it needs to be a mentality of next man up. It needs to be a collective effort,” said head coach Darko Rajakovic. “It’s very hard to interchange his offensive and defensive rebounding and his size and disruptiveness he has on the defensive end.
“Everybody else has to do a bit bit more”
Kelly Olynyk of Kamloops, B.C., might be certainly one of the players prone to receive more playing time in Poeltl’s absence. The Canadian forward continues to be recovery from back spasms that kept him out of Toronto’s lineup for the primary 23 games of the season.
Olynyk said he’s still attempting to work himself into shape with just 4 games under his belt within the 2024-25 campaign.
“Attempting to get back into the flow,” said Olynyk. “Your body’s not conditioned to play basketball after sitting out for six, seven weeks.
“But obviously the back a bit bit, but just attempting to get back into your rhythm and the flow of running up down the ground, playing full speed, full contact.”
Poeltl has been exceptional for the Raptors this season, averaging 15.5 points, 11 rebounds and a couple of.7 assists over 26 games. His player efficiency rating — a stat that measure per-minute production — is well above average at 19.4.
Olynyk has 6.5 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.3 assists over his 4 games on limited minutes with a player efficiency rating of 15, the NBA’s average rating.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 18, 2024.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
