There’s not going to be an awful lot of time for the Raptors or any NBA team to prepare to play games of the utmost importance under the strange circumstances they face.
And perhaps that plays right into the wheelhouse of the defending champions.
Of all the things the Raptors showed in building the league’s third-best record over their first 64 games was the ability to quickly adapt to injuries that took key players out of games.
Every significant player has missed at least one game due to injury and four of the team’s regular starting five — Kyle Lowry, Fred VanVleet, Pascal Siakam and Marc Gasol — have missed 80 games between them.