Toronto is back in the swing of things after a tough December start that included a four-game losing streak, matching their largest consecutive losing margin of the season so far. They are now riding a two-game winning streak after defeating the injury-plagued Milwaukee Bucks on December 18.
In that game, the Raptors continued to play without their Canadian star RJ Barrett, who is still rehabbing a knee sprain. They also missed starting center Jakob Poeltl, who was inactive to manage his lingering back injury that has been a nuisance for most of the year.
In his place, value bench pickup Sandro Mamukelashvili received the start and responded in a big way for his Raptors team in the winning effort.