Raptors Cage

Game Day Preview: Raptors prepare for final 3 games

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melo

The Toronto Raptors will travel to New York to take on the Knicks. As we know, the Knicks are an abysmal team sitting at 32-48. The Raps are 53-26 – yes you read that right. There is actually implications with winning this game as the Raptors own the worse of the Knicks/Nuggets pick from the Bargnani trade, so it is in the Raps’ best interest for the Knicks to lose.

Luis Scola will be rested, and it was speculated Kyle Lowry would be as well, but Delon Wright suffered a mild injury last game, forcing Lowry to play some minutes. DeMarre Carroll will also likely get some burn, and will hopefully guard Carmelo Anthony. 

Cage’s Keys to the Game

Contain Melo

To be quite honest, the only way the Raptors can lose this game is if Melo goes off. With an injured Kristaps Porzingis, Jose Calderon, Tony Wroten, and Lance Thomas, the Knicks next best option is probably Robin Lopez or Derrick Williams. So yeah. Stop Melo and the Knicks will look a lot like a D-League team.

Rotation management 

This isn’t really a key to winning, but is just as important. I really hope Lowry doesn’t have to play over 20 minutes – same with DeMar DeRozan. The Raptors will need these guys as fresh as possible for the playoffs, and there is literally nothing to play for right now. I would like to see them get some minutes in with Carroll to establish some playoff lineups, but Casey needs to be smart about this.

Take care of business

We saw the Raptors come out with an all business mentality last time out, with guys like Norman Powell and Delon Wright absolutely shining. Whoever’s on the court shouldn’t just mail it in – the starters need to go hard to ensure they maintain their game form, and take care of this team.

X-Factor: Jason Thompson

It will be interesting to see a Lowry-DeRozan-Powell-Thompson-JV starting lineup (presumably). JT has shown flashes of what I believe he can bring to the table. His minutes haven’t been consistent enough to make a real judgement on how well he really fits with this team.

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