Friday night, the Toronto Raptors head to Tennessee to face the Memphis Grizzlies at FedEx Forum. They look to salvage their worst loss of the season from Wednesday night, coming in a 123-115 defeat to the bottom seed in the Western Conference, the Sacramento Kings. Despite an excellent offensive performance from the team as a whole, 55% shooting and 39% from three, they were outrebounded by 16, allowing 19 offensive boards and 20 second-chance points. 

This loss was simply unacceptable for a team striving to make the playoffs after watching from the outside for three straight seasons. After once controlling their own destiny to lock in a playoff spot, the Raptors have fallen into the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference and into the Play-In Tournament, if they don’t turn it around in the final six games of the regular season. 

With four of the final games coming against the second-seeded Boston Celtics, third-seeded New York Knicks, and Miami Heat (twice), the Raptors desperately needed all three wins against the Kings, Grizzlies, and Brooklyn Nets. These games seemed guaranteed to be in favor of Toronto, but now all assurance is out the window as the regular season comes to a close. 

Going into Memphis, the official NBA injury report has news that may be slightly encouraging to Raptors fans. 

Against the Grizzlies, the Raptors have listed Immanuel Quickley as out due to plantar fasciitis and Jamison Battle as questionable due to an illness. While the starting point guard continues to be without a timetable to return, he has begun practicing without a walking boot, showing signs of minimal progress. RJ Barrett, Brandon Ingram, and Collin Murray-Boyles are all available after being present on the injury report against Sacramento. 

In Quickley’s absence, two-time All-Star Scottie Barnes has overtaken the primary ball-handling duties and has flourished. He has supplied 10 or more assists in each of the last six games, becoming just the second forward ever to achieve those numbers after the NBA’s All-Time Leading Scorer, LeBron James (via Pensare Basketball). As seen in the Kings game, however, the Raptors need him to do more than just facilitate on the offensive end in order to win games. 

The Raptors have never quite been fully healthy this season. It started with Jakob Poeltl missing 24 straight games due to a lower back strain; the team greatly missed his physicality, rebounding, and interior scoring that Sandro Mamukelashvili and Murray-Boyles couldn’t quite provide. 

Then it was RJ Barrett who played just six games over two months due to separate knee and ankle injuries. After starting the season out very strongly on the offensive end, his absence of scoring was detrimental to a team that really only had one player who could consistently create his own shot in Ingram. 

After getting those two back, Murray-Boyles finally was forced to miss 11 straight games due to a left thumb sprain that occurred back in December, but has affected him until just a week or two ago. Now with Quickley out for his seventh-straight game, the Raptors need to continue to overcome adversity like they have all season if they want to lock in a playoff spot and avoid the red-hot Charlotte Hornets in the Play-In.