A depressing begin to the season simply received even worse for the Toronto Raptors.
2022 NBA Rookie of the Yr and 2024 All-Star Scottie Barnes is anticipated to be sidelined for a number of weeks with a proper ankle sprain, per ESPN’s Shams Charania.
Barnes suffered the harm in the course of the third quarter in a loss to the New York Knicks on Monday night time when he landed on Karl-Anthony Cities as he was trying to dam a shot. Barnes was unable to place any weight on his proper foot on the time of the harm and needed to be helped off the courtroom by his teammates.
The harm marks one other setback for Barnes after the fourth-year participant missed 11 video games earlier this season with a proper orbital fracture.
Though the Raptors (7-18) at present have the second-worst report within the Japanese Convention forward of the Washington Wizards (3-19), Barnes has been implausible.
When he has been wholesome, Barnes has averaged profession highs in factors (20.6 PPG), rebounds (8.4 RPG) and assists (7.4 APG). He’s considered one of 4 gamers within the league averaging these numbers, which speaks to his versatility on the courtroom.
Within the 11 video games Barnes has already missed, Toronto went simply 2-9, which says rather a lot about his general significance to the workforce. The Raptors are going to want extra from main scorer RJ Barrett (23.6 PPG, 6.6 RPG, 5.8 APG), Gradey Dick (17.9 PPG) and Jakob Poeltl (15.9 PPG, 11.6 RPG) in Barnes’ absence.
With the Raptors positioned towards the underside of the league, the lack of their All-Star ahead throughout a profession yr goes to be arduous to beat.
