The Raptors will be without point guard Immanuel Quickley against the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday night at Scotiabank Arena.
Quickley was fighting a bruised right thigh during Monday’s loss to the Memphis Grizzlies and held out of Thursday’s practice, coach Darko Rajakovic said: “He was dealing with a right thigh contusion and it was becoming sore, so we decided … for him not to practise today and we’re just going to be evaluating him day-by-day.”
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Quickley has started all 12 games he’s played for the Raptors since a late-December trade with the New York Knicks. The six-foot-three guard is averaging 16.7 points and 6.1 assists per game while shooting 44.4 per cent from three-point range as a Raptor.
Rajakovic said Quickley will accompany the team on a six-game road trip that starts Sunday, but ruled him out for Friday in Thursday’s injury report. The coach said Scottie Barnes will assume starting point guard duties, with veteran Dennis Schröder continuing as the team’s sixth man.
“I think when he comes off the bench pretty early in that first quarter — around the six-minute mark — he right away brings intensity on the defensive end,” Rajakovic said of Schröder. “He’s picking up full court, he can guard players at different positions from one through three, and he gets us stabilized there offensively as well, gets our offence organized very well.”
It’s unclear who will join the starting five with Barnes moving over to fill in for Quickley alongside Gary Trent Jr., RJ Barrett and Jontay Porter or Thad Young. The first choice could be veteran Bruce Brown, who was acquired from the Indiana Pacers in the Pascal Siakam trade and has played frontcourt roles in previous NBA stints, despite being listed at six-foot-four.
Centre Jakob Poeltl, out since spraining an ankle more than two weeks ago in San Francisco, has been cleared for full contact in practice, but isn’t ready to return.
