The Toronto Raptors hit the ground running coming off the All-Star break, with road wins against Chicago and Milwaukee. Now, they return to Toronto to take on the Oklahoma City Thunder, who are a league-best 44-14.
The Raptors won 103-101 in January when they last took on the defending champs. This time around they’ll face a depleted version as they look to sweep the season series against the league’s best team. Here are a few storylines for tonight’s game, which is the first leg of a back-to-back.
Who is playing?
Remember when people were predicting whether OKC could reach 70 wins, or even reach the 2015-16 Warriors’ 73-win mark? They’re still damn good, but with 14 losses, those conversations are officially over – and the Thunder’s injury bug won’t help their chances of securing the top seed in the Western Conference. The Thunder are missing reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous Alexander, which is a shame for Raptors fans who were hoping to see Canada’s top player in action. They’re also down All-Star forward Jalen Williams – and with Chet Holmgren questionable with back spasms, the Raptors may see a version of the Thunder that includes none of its three best players.
But the Thunder are easily one of the league’s deepest teams. Cason Wallace is a gritty defender capable of big offensive performances. Isaiah Joe is a lethal shooter. Jared McCain, the second-year guard the Thunder acquired before the trade deadline from the Philadelphia 76ers, has provided a nice infusion of scoring off the bench during this shorthanded stretch. Nikola Topic, who recently made his debut following a battle with testicular cancer, is getting minutes! With SGA and Williams out, the Thunder have resorted to a quicker pace that matches how the Raptors like to play.
The Raptors will be without Jakob Poeltl, who’s getting a rest night to manage his back injury ahead of a game vs. the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday. That will force someone to play bigger than their size against center Isaiah Hartenstein – but it’ll also allow the Raptors to play fast. Scottie Barnes, who missed last game for personal reasons, is back in the lineup, along with the presumed starters of Brandon Ingram, Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett and Collin Murray-Boyles. Ja’Kobe Walter started last game in place of Barnes, and has played his way into a steady rotation spot in the wake of Ochai Agbaji being traded.
IQ!
With Scottie Barnes out, Immanuel Quickley was the driving force of the Raptors’ 122-94 win against the Bucks on Sunday. (An especially important blowout win to help take our minds off the gold medal game…) After a slow start to the season, Quickley has really picked things up in the last couple months, and particularly in February; he’s averaging 20 points per game on 44% three-point shooting this month. That hot shooting carried into Sunday’s game, when he went 5/11 from beyond the arc en route to 32 points and nine assists.
Another thing on display Sunday was some lovely two-man action with Quickley and Poeltl, who set a number of screens that Quickley played off of brilliantly, in some cases dumping the ball to Poeltl and then relocating for the catch. The chemistry looked nice – but with Poeltl out tonight, and likely to miss a number of games to manage his injury, Quickley will need to find other ways to cut into the teeth of the defense. If he can keep shooting like this, that spacing alone will be a huge boon for the offense. Plus, one of the team’s best-performing two-man pairings is Quickley with Jamal Shead. The two guards have a +8.0 net rating per 100 possessions in 355 minutes together, according to NBA.com.
Thumbs up?
Collin Murray-Boyles’ rookie season has been one of many positives for the 2025-26 Raptors. With Poeltl in and out of the lineup, CMB has played his way into being an occasional starter. His defense looks way ahead of schedule, and he’s shown very nice playmaking flashes. Where he has room for improvement is his assertiveness under the basket. Sometimes he’ll hold onto the ball or kick out when the best play would be to attack the rim.
But Murray-Boyles has been nursing a left thumb injury which has kept him out of games, and in all likelihood is a major factor in that hesitance. We saw him wince and grab that thumb after a strong dunk attempt, on which he drew a foul, against the Chicago Bulls last week. The last thing Raptors fans want is for the rookie to seriously re-aggravate his thumb. That would certainly not be good news for head coach Darko Rajakovic, who is already not working with much size on the roster. But CMB could unlock something if he goes up a level around the rim, and would be more dangerous when he’s grabbing his 2.5 offensive rebounds per game.