The Next Lamb: The Toronto Raptors

Game 32: Boston (24-7) at Toronto (11-21)
Sunday, January 2
6 p.m. Eastern
NBA League Pass
Last meeting: @Boston 110, Toronto 101 (11/26/2010)

Happy New Year, all. I apologize for not keeping up with the team for the last week; my hard drive crashed and it's been a bit difficult to watch games or blog.

Since the Christmas Day loss to Orlando, the Celtics have played three games, beating Indiana before losing to Detroit and then New Orleans. I was unable to watch any of those games, but it appears the team played pretty poorly in each. Even the win over the Pacers required a big fourth quarter surge. (The bench gave a similar surge in the fourth against the Hornets, going on a 16-0 run to turn a nine-point deficit into a seven-point lead, but the team couldn't hang on.)

The big story coming out of Boston this week is that Kevin Garnett left in the first quarter of the game against the Pistons with what the team is calling a strained right calf. He's expected to miss a couple of weeks, and with Rajon Rondo still nursing his sore ankle (among other assorted injuries), the story heading into Sunday's game with Toronto may be just as much about who isn't playing as who is.

Fortunately for Boston, the Raps have some serious injury issues of their own. Their starting center and best player, Andrea Bargnani, has missed the last three games with a calf injury of his own and won't play on Sunday. Small forward Sonny Weems, who was enjoying something of a breakout year after moving into the starting lineup, hasn't played in six games and remains day-to-day with a back injury. Jose Calderon -- the undisputed starter at point guard now that Jarrett Jack has been traded to New Orelans -- missed Saturday's practice with a foot injury, and his understudy, Jerryd Bayless (acquired from the Hornets in the Jack trade) has an ankle injury that limited him to eight minutes on Friday against the Rockets. Amir Johnson, starting at power forward in place of Reggie Evans, who broke his foot in the last meeting of the Celtics, is also nursing an injury, though he and Calderon probably will play. The point is, though Boston is banged up, there will be no excuses if they lose to a depleted Toronto team that is mediocre, at best, when healthy.

One Raptor who is healthy is DeMar DeRozan, who scored a career-high 37 points against Houston on New Year's Eve. DeRozan is an athletic young shooting guard in his second year out of USC, and does most of his damage going to the basket. He's not a threat from behind the arc, but he loves to put the ball on the floor and spin to the hoop. He's been getting to the line a bunch lately, which has contributed to his improved scoring of late.

Given all the injuries, the most dangerous Raptor, from an offensive standpoint, is probably sixth man Leandro Barbosa. Despite the fact that he plays the same position as DeRozan, he managed 17 points against the Rockets (it appears from the box score that the Raptors went small for much of that game). Controlling those guys should be a priority.

The Raptors are not particularly good defensively or on the glass, and it would be nice to see Boston try to take advantage of their depleted frontcourt by going inside and getting Shaquille O'Neal and Glen Davis involved early. Johnson is foul-prone, and so is Joey Dorsey, the guy starting in Bargnani's place. After those two, the bigs are a couple of rookies: Ed Davis (who has showed flashes in limited minutes this year) and Solomon Alabi, who has played something like ten minutes and three seconds over the course of three appearances this season. Particularly since Rondo's absence has made offense a bit of a chore at times for the Celtics, taking advantage of our size should be a priority.