No Las Vegas, but sleep for the Raptors
Before this NBA Cup quarterfinal against the Knicks, Darko Rajaković noticed yes, if his troops played, some evenings “They don’t have 100% to give. We only have 70 or 80% in the engine and we are learning to use this 80% as much as possible, how to use it 100%”.
A mistake in the frenetic pace of late. Indeed, with the (lost) game against the Knicks, that makes seven games played in eleven days for Raptors ! When colleaguesfaced with the sluggishness of the Canadians in certain moments of the matches, he spoke about the formation “who hopes to get 10 extra minutes of sleep”they were clearly not wrong.
Luckily for the Raptors, ace they are now eliminated tournament and therefore will not go to Las Vegas this weekend, will only play on Monday against Miami. So they have five days of rest ahead of them. “It is very important to recharge the batteries on a mental and physical level”, chains Brandon Ingram.
No one played more than Toronto
With 26 matches played, the 2019 championship franchise is the one that has spent the most time on the pitch after seven weeks of competition. “After seven meetings in eleven days, we need it, that’s clear”confirms Jamal Shead in this non-playing window. “We have to be complete, we have to have everything.”
The return of Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett, in addition to adding talent, will offer additional rotations to the coach to share minutes and fatigue.
“An important lesson I’ve learned this season is that our margin for error is small, especially when we have absentees.” says Brandon Ingram. “Jakob Poeltl was out, RJ too, Quickley missed the game against New York. So we don’t have a big advantage in these matches against very good teams.”
2025-12-10 16:10:00
