Raptors' RJ Barrett jokes about playing status ahead of likely return vs. Bucks
01/06/2025 03:04 PM
The Toronto Raptors are expected to have a healthy lineup for the first time in a while on Monday as Toronto is taking on the Milwaukee Bucks at home. One player that has been out recently due to illness is RJ Barrett, but he is expected to play on Monday night. Barrett returned to practice on Sunday, and he is officially listed as questionable for this game against the Bucks.
Toronto hasn’t had their core healthy at the same at all this season, so Monday night’s game against the Bucks could be a special one. RJ Barrett clearly doesn’t want anything to go wrong leading up to the matchup.
“Don't jinx it. Don't jinx it,” Barrett said with a laugh on Sunday, according to an article from Sports Illustrated. “We're happy. We're gonna go out there and see what we got.”
Coming into this game against the Bucks, the Raptors are 8-27 and have one of the worst records in the league. However, something could change now that they have a healthy squad. Barrett thinks that they would have some more wins right now had the team been healthy all year.
“I feel a lot of these games that we've lost that are close, I feel like with all of us out there we'd be able to close kind of that gap where it's just, you know, make smarter, better decisions,” Barrett said on Sunday. “We're all really excited.”
Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic is also excited about this turn of the tide. A healthy team can obviously do wonders all around.
“I hope now they're going to be healthy enough that over [the] next month, two, three months, we can really develop that unit and see [how it can] also help us establish our second unit as well,” Rajakovic said.
When a team is off to such a poor start and only has eight wins over two months into the season, it’s hard to imagine that a turnaround is possible. However, this situation surrounding the Raptors is different. They have obviously had some bad luck in terms of health, and they now have something to build around and be optimistic about.
There is still plenty of time for the Raptors to make a comeback in the Eastern Conference, and they aren’t that far behind the 10th place postseason cutoff. The Chicago Bulls are currently in 10th place with a 16-19 record, just eight games ahead of the Raptors. Who knows, maybe a healthy Raptors squad with RJ Barrett back could make a surprise run to the playoffs.
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