Toronto’s back at home after a mini two-game road trip, during which they were unable to win a game. The Raptors have now lost nine consecutive games, and they’ll hope to feed off the energy of the Scotiabank Arena to avoid a tenth. They’ll face a challenging opponent in Atlanta, who’s currently riding into town on a three-game win streak of their own.
Atlanta is led by their seventh-year guard Trae Young. He’s one of the best playmaking players in the NBA and is enjoying a career-high of 12.2 assists per game (leads the league, as his margin to Cade Cunningham, who’s second in the league for assists per game is a whopping 2.5 assists shy of Trae) coming into his showdown against Toronto. Toronto will need to keep a lookout on Jalen Johnson, as he’s now a rising star who broke out last season for the Hawks after trading John Collins to the Utah Jazz which freed up playing time for the fourth-year forward. Johnson is averaging a cool double-double of 20 points per game and 10.4 rebounds per game which are both career highs in his young career. Their first-round pick from last year’s draft Zaccharie Risacher who has started all but two games isn’t off to the start to his NBA career that he might’ve envisioned, but he’s had good moments. De’Andre Hunter has loved his switch to the second unit as he’s also having a career year with 20.6 points a night.
Atlanta’s coming into this contest as the 8th best scoring team in the NBA (117.3 points per game) who likes to play with pace, they’re only 17th in the league with a 115.4 defensive rating but they rank 2nd in the league for steals (10 steals per game) which leads them to the running game. They’re also ranking 4th for total rebounding (46 per game) across the league and eighth in offensive rebounds (12.2 per game). It’ll be another bad game on the glass for Toronto most likely if they’re once again without centre Jakob Poeltl. Nothing else from their team stats stands out too much so expect an up-tempo game tonight.
Tip-Off: 6:00 p.m. ET
Television: Sprotsnet
Radio: Sportsnet 590
PG: Trae Young
SG: Vit Krejci
SF: Zaccharie Risacher
PF: Jalen Johnson
C: Clint Capela
PG: Scottie Barnes
SG: Gradey Dick
SF: RJ Barrett
PF: Ochai Agbaji
C: Kelly Olynyk
Atlanta’s got a long injury list, as of now, they haven’t submitted their official injury report in yet but based on the last game, they could be missing six players. All but Cody Zeller have averaged 10+ minutes for the team, so they could be without quite a few rotation pieces against Toronto.
Larry Nance (Hand) – Out
Dyson Daniels (Illness) – Out
Bogdan Bogdanovic ( Lower Leg) – Out
Onyeka Okongwu (Knee) – Out
Cody Zeller (Personal) – Out
Kobe Bufkin (Shoulder) – Out for the season
On the other hand, Toronto has been very professional and sent in a report, it comes out with no surprises since the whole year has been injury-plagued and it’s going to continue tonight. Five players that are currently on the report have been a consistent part of the rotation this season and Bruce Brown was a big part of the rotation last year, so that’s actually six potential rotation pieces out for Toronto. Although it’s a long list, the Raptors are only confirmed to be without Immanuel Quickley. Everybody else at the moment is questionable so there is a chance we could see Bruce Brown’s debut tonight.
Bruce Brown (Right knee) – Questionable
Bruno Fernando (Left foot) – Questionable
Davion Mitchell (Illness) – Questionable
Jakob Poeltl (Groin) – Questionable
Immanuel Quickley (Left elbow) – Out
Jamal Shead (Right knee) – Questionable
Ja’Kobe Walter (Illness) – Questionable
| Team | Spread | Money | Total |
| Atlanta Hawks | -1.5 (-105) | -105 | O 236.5 (-115) |
| Toronto Raptors | +1.5 (-115) | +105 | U 236.5 (-105) |
*Odds as of Dec 29, 5:30 am ET*
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