Matchup: Toronto Raptors vs. Denver Nuggets — Start Time, Lineups, and More
The Raptors visit Denver to take on one of Canada’s top talents and the reigning NBA Champions.
Two members of Canada’s Senior Men’s National Team will face off tonight as the Toronto Raptors visit the reigning NBA Champions, the Denver Nuggets.
RJ Barrett of the Raptors is from Mississauga and Jamal Murray of the Nuggets from Kitchener, both having grown up as fans of the Toronto Raptors. Tonight, one will play for them, and one will play against them. In four months, however, they’ll be playing together with Team Canada in Paris at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
It’s a matchup we weren’t sure we’d be getting, as Barrett was a late scratch from Saturday night’s overtime loss to Portland as he was dealing with an illness. The Canadian wing was on the injury report all day long but has been confirmed as starting for the Raptors tonight.
Here's who's available for the Raptors tonight:
— Keerthika Uthayakumar (@keerthikau) March 11, 2024
RJ Barrett
Gradey Dick
Javon Freeman-Liberty
Kelly Olynyk
Ochai Agbaji
Jontay Porter
Jalen McDaniels
Jordan Nwora
Garrett Temple
Jahmi'us Ramsey
Speaking of the injury report, it looked more like a laundry list today for Toronto. Six Raptors have been ruled out for tonight’s game as Immanuel Quickley, Gary Trent Jr. and Chris Boucher all found themselves banged up after the hard-fought comeback to push Saturday’s game into overtime.
The longest tenured Raptor in Toronto’s lineup tonight will actually be rookie Gradey Dick, who makes only the third start of his young NBA career. Bruce Brown draws back into the lineup after a four game absence and is listed as the team’s point guard tonight, likely drawing the matchup against Murray.
Fun fact: Gradey Dick has played 43 games for the Raptors, the most of any player available to play for Toronto tonight against Denver.
— Keerthika Uthayakumar (@keerthikau) March 11, 2024
Kelly Olynyk in only his 13th game with the Raptors will draw a tough matchup of his own as he is listed as Toronto’s starting centre. Another member of the Canadian men’s national team, Olynyk is the unfortunate soul who has the responsibility of trying to defend two-time NBA MVP and reigning Finals MVP Nikola Jokic.
The Canadian centre has his work cut out for him as the tallest player available for Toronto outside of himself is Jontay Porter, who’s played a grand total of 44 minutes of NBA basketball since January 30th. Porter had quite a decent run as the Raptors backup centre throughout the month of January but has had little action since then.
It’ll be a tough one tonight for a heavily depleted Raptors team, so all we can hope for is an exciting game where no one else gets injured!
How to Watch:
Sportsnet at 9:00 pm ET
Likely Lineups:
Toronto: Bruce Brown, Gradey Dick, Ochai Agbaji, RJ Barrett, Kelly Olynyk
Denver: Jamal Murray, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Michael Porter Jr., Aaron Gordon, Nikola Jokic
Injuries:
Toronto: Scottie Barnes (out — hand), Chris Boucher (out — knee), DJ Carton (out — ankle), Jakob Poeltl (out — hand), Immanuel Quickley (out — hip), Gary Trent Jr. (out — groin)
Denver: Vlatko Cancar (out — knee)