With six games remaining in the regular season and a guaranteed playoff spot at stake, the Toronto Raptors are in desperate need of a strong finish.
The Raptors (42-34) need to finish in the top six of the Eastern Conference to secure a guaranteed berth. Currently, Toronto is tied with the Philadelphia 76ers for sixth place, but would finish seventh if the season ended today because the 76ers own the tiebreaker between the two teams.
When Toronto visits Memphis (25-51) Friday, it will be attempting to stop an unwelcome skid. The Raptors have dropped two straight, including a 123-115 decision Wednesday to lowly Sacramento.
The Raptors want to avoid finishing seventh through 10th, which would require going to the play-in tournament to earn a spot in the playoffs.
“A really tough loss for us,” said Toronto coach Darko Rajakovic.
All-Star forward Scottie Barnes was questionable before the game with a left shoulder contusion, but played and had 14 points and 10 assists in the loss to the Kings. Rajakovic said there’s a lot riding on Barnes’ healthy shoulders.
“He has a lot on his plate,” Rajakovic said. “He’s trying to play-make. We also need him to score as well. It’s a fine balance between being aggressive and scoring and to play-make. He’s trying to do his best in those situations.”
Barnes said the loss to the Kings was frustrating.
“We have a solid record,” Barnes said. “But this is a game we’re supposed to win no matter what. From top to bottom, we’ve got to play better as a unit.
“Over these next six games, we’ll show who we really are. We know how close this race is. We’ve got to play like our life depends on it.”
Memphis, on the other hand, is limping to the finish as most of its key players are sidelined with injuries and/or recent medical procedures. The final six games of the season for the Grizzlies will not include, among others, guard Ja Morant, Zach Edey, Jaylen Wells, Scotty Pippen Jr., Santi Aldama and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
The Grizzlies have lost seven of their past eight games and 15 of their past 17 with a roster filled largely with rookies, two-way players and 10-day contract players.
Despite being undermanned, Memphis has played inspired basketball against some of the league’s best teams. In Wednesday’s 130-119 loss to the mostly healthy New York Knicks, the Grizzlies fell behind by 22 in the second quarter only to trim the deficit to three points late in the third quarter.
“It’s not often that you look up on the scoreboard and have (played efficiently on offense) and are down by 20 in the first half,” Memphis coach Tuomas Iisalo said. “It happened (Wednesday) and I was very happy with how our guys responded at halftime.
“We just discussed, ‘Do we actually need to make adjustments or is the adjustment to actually do the things that we agreed to do and then do them better and do them harder?’ And we certainly did that in the second half.”
