Injuries Place Toronto Raptors In A Familiar Position

The Toronto Raptors have overcome injuries throughout the regular season. Now without Jonas Valanciunas they will once again rely on their bench to step up.

Nobody said things would be easy for the Toronto Raptors. After a tumultuous but successful season, the Raptors found themselves with the second seed in the Eastern Conference. They obtained this high seed despite DeMarre Carroll missing the bulk of the season and Jonas Valanciunas missing 22 games. The team excelled despite these injuries and now in the playoffs they are once again put in a familiar situation.

Don’t be mistaken, the absence of Valanciunas for the remainder of the Eastern Conference semifinals is a devastating blow to the Raptors. Valanciunas has been the best player for Toronto throughout the playoffs and an argument could be made for him being the best player in this series for either team.

While Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan have struggled to score with efficiency that they displayed in the regular season, Valanciunas has bailed the team out with his strong play in the interior and provided them with a reliable option offensively. On top of his scoring, he has also been playing some of the best defense of his career, especially in the pick and roll. Under most circumstances, losing him in a series that has been close throughout would be impossible to overcome.

But this isn’t most circumstances. The Miami Heat also have injuries concerns of their own, as Hassan Whiteside has suffered an MCL strain and will miss Game 4 at home. One of the biggest strengths for Toronto this season has been their depth. Bismack Biyombo has elevated his play throughout the season whenever the Raptors needed it most and especially when thrust into a starting role.

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Already missing Chris Bosh, the Heat will be forced to use either Udonis Haslem or Amar’e Stoudemire in a starting role. Neither player possesses the ability to be a deterrent at the rim and that will open things up dramatically for both DeRozan and Lowry.

Already with a 2-1 advantage in this series, the Raptors will once again turn to their bench platoon of Biyombo, Jason Thompson, Luis Scola and likely even some Patrick Patterson to fill in at the center position.

Whiteside’s status for the rest of the series is yet to be determined as he is considered day-to-day, so if the Raptors can capitalize in Game 4 and leave Miami with a 3-1 series lead, they will be considered heavy favorites to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals with two home games remaining.

The pressure once again turns to Lowry and DeRozan. While the bench depth was crucial in surviving injuries, they also were able to count on their All-Star backcourt playing like All-Stars. What should be an advantage for Toronto has been anything but that against Miami’s tandem of Dwayne Wade and Goran Dragic.

While injuries to both team’s starting centers has tilted the advantage in the middle in Toronto’s favor due to depth, their backcourt has to regain the reliability of the past for them to have any chance of beating this veteran Miami team.

With Whiteside’s absence, one would assume the Heat will deploy even smaller lineups than they have to this point in the playoffs. They have had tremendous success using Luol Deng as their power forward and should either Haslem or Stoudemire struggle, they may even go with a five-wing lineup if Biyombo is in at center. Biyombo is 6-foot-9 and doesn’t possess an ability to score in the post, so the opportunity is there for Erik Spoelstra to get creative out of necessity.

Toronto also possesses many wing options, so it will be interesting to see if a relatively low-scoring and slow offensive series turns into a track-meet given their respective injuries.

Regardless of what each team decides to go with, Game 4 will prove to be pivotal for this series. As mentioned above, a 3-1 series lead for Toronto would put the team in a prime position to advance to the conference finals for the first time in franchise history. Should Miami get the win, they set themselves up well to advance should Whiteside return for the remaining games.

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There is no creature more dangerous than a wounded animal; we’ll see how these two teams perform with their backs against the wall.