Injuries Keep Piling Up For Raptors with Eyes on Grizzlies

The injuries keep piling on. It appears the Toronto Raptors may be without RJ Barrett and Chris Boucher on Monday night against the Denver Nuggets. Barrett is still questionable with an illness while Boucher battles a new right knee contusion. They’ve joined a long Raptors injury report that already had Toronto without Scottie Barnes and Jakob Poeltl. DJ Carton continues to battle a right ankle sprain and will miss Monday’s game too. Bruce Brown does appear to be on the mend as he’s been listed as questionable for the first time since he injured his right knee earlier this month. Brown has missed four games with the injury dating back to March 3. Toronto remains without a timeline on Barnes and Poeltl, both of whom underwent surgeries to fix hand injuries. The Raptors have gone 1-4 without Barnes this year and now look like one of the league’s worst teams. If the season ended today, Toronto would have a 32% shot at keeping its top-six protected first-round pick.

Those odds would jump to 46% if the Raptors can slip behind the Memphis Grizzlies who own the sixth-worst record in the league. Memphis remains 1.5 games up on Toronto in the reverse standings following a loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday night. Expect that number to fall back down to just one game when Toronto takes on the Nuggets on Monday. The Brooklyn Nets sit 2.5 games behind Toronto in the reverse standings, giving the Raptors a little bit of breathing room on the eighth-worst record.