The Toronto Raptors are heading into their game against the Sacramento Kings as winners of their last three games. They defeated the hard-nosed Portland Trailblazers with nearly flawless basketball on Wednesday night to start off the new year virtually nullifying any production from the Blazers’ star LaMarcus Aldridge.
The last time these two teams met, Tyreke Evans broke the heart of Raptors fans across the country during an epic attempt at a comeback victory with two back to back three pointers. The miscommunication on defence essentially sealed the deal for the Raptors that game.
This time around the Raptors are winners of eight of their last nine games and hope to continue this winning streak during their longest homestand of the season. The Raptors are still without their second leading scorer in Andrea Bargnani, for the 10th game in a row, but it hasn’t seemed to impact the chemistry of this team in any sort of way.
In order for the Raptors to continue their win streak they must be able to contain a rejuvenated DeMarcus Cousins after his brief stint on team suspension. The Raptors’ currently lack a true inside presence at the moment without a healthy Jonas Valanciunas. The skills of this behemoth are too much for the likes of an Aaron Gray to take care of for a full game. Tyreke Evans also makes his return to the lineup tonight.
If the Raptors are able to continue distributing the ball, and play solid team defence with Kyle Lowry coming off the bench then they will have no problem in dissecting a dysfunctional Kings squad that came off a rare win two days ago.
The Toronto Raptors are looking to be winners of their last 9 of 10 games with a win against the Kings tonight, they are currently only three games out of the 8th and final playoff spot.
