Atlantic Notes: Rajakovic, Raptors, Knicks, Sixers

the Raptors They’re as wholesome as they’ve been all season, however their outcomes on the sphere have not improved not too long ago. They fell to a struggling Orlando workforce final Friday and misplaced to Milwaukee on Monday, each losses coming at residence. They’ve now misplaced 13 of their final 14 video games and have an 8-28 file on the season, the third-worst mark within the NBA.

Toronto has been under .500 since opening evening, however the membership has been extra aggressive early within the season even whereas coping with accidents to gamers like Scotty Barnes, Immanuel Quickley, Kelly Olynykand Bruce Brown. With the Raptors wholesome, head coach Darko Rajakovic They might begin to expertise actual stress for the primary time if the outcomes do not begin to enhance slightly Eric Koren of The Athletic.

For his half, Rajakovic stated he was assured his workforce would give a greater effort than they confirmed on Monday towards the Bucks.

“(It is) a protracted center of the season. It is gamers getting back from accidents, gamers out of rhythm, gamers not taking part in collectively.” Rajakovic stated. “Once more, I do not need any of those to sound like excuses. We have to be loads higher in all of those areas. However on the similar time, we’re working exhausting, and I believe we will come out of this hunch, and I believe we’re going to have the ability to play basketball at a a lot larger degree than we did.” We confirmed it (Monday).”

It will not be simple for Toronto to show issues round within the brief time period. The membership will play back-to-back units on Wednesday and Thursday towards the Knicks and Cavaliers earlier than visiting the red-hot Pistons in Detroit on Saturday.

This is extra from across the Atlantic:

• in Separate story for the athleteCorinne evaluates a collection of Raptors-Related buying and selling solutions from readers, together with hypothetical trades involving… Jacob Poeltl, Chris Boucherand Brown, amongst others.
• With minor well being issues that drive two… Nix“Essentially the most distinguished gamers who missed the matches through the previous week are: Stefan Bondy of the New York Post He examines the difficulty of workforce depth, referring to that coach Tom Thibodeau He confirmed little inclination to broaden his rotation to 9 gamers. Come again wholesome Mitchell Robinson That may assist issues, in line with Bondy, who provides that the membership may also take into account its choices within the commerce and acquisition markets, though cap restrictions will restrict the entrance workplace’s choices.
• Joel Embiid (sprain of left foot), Paul George (tightness within the left thigh), and Kyle Lowry (proper hip soreness) won’t be out there for the Sixers on Wednesday after they host the Wizards, per Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer. This would be the second straight recreation that each Embiid and Lowry have missed.
• The absence of Embiid and George will delay the sport SixersThe power to proceed engaged on the chemistry of the duo, Pompey writes in another story for The Inquirer. Head coach Nurse Nick He stated earlier this week that he did not have sufficient knowledge on Embiid and George’s two-man recreation but and needed to prioritize getting extra reps collectively.