The Toronto Raptors will aim to put a dubious record-setting game behind them when they host the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday evening.
The Raptors allowed the most points in a game in franchise history on Thursday in a 155-126 road loss to the Memphis Grizzlies to drop their ninth game in a row.
Frustrations reached a peak when Toronto coach Darko Rajakovic was ejected in the fourth quarter after an emotional outburst against the officials.
“I will always stand up for my guys,” Rajakovic said at practice on Saturday. “And in that moment, as well, I felt that my team needed to wake up. I wanted to send a message that we needed to fight until the last minute and just wanted to create a reaction from my team to get them going.”
The Hawks made some history of their own on Thursday in a 141-133 home victory over the Chicago Bulls, scoring 50 points in the fourth quarter, including a 31-7 surge. It was Atlanta’s highest fourth-quarter points total ever.
The Hawks came back on Saturday to complete a 3-1 homestand with their third consecutive win, 120-110 over the Miami Heat. Jalen Johnson led the Hawks with 28 points and 13 rebounds, and Trae Young had 11 points and 15 assists.
The Hawks will open a six-game road trip on Sunday.
Rajakovic, meanwhile, said he expects better from his team despite numerous injuries.
“I will never look at the team we have available and say, ‘Oh, that’s to be expected, we don’t have to fight.’ No, we have to have a fight,” he said. “We are the Toronto Raptors, we’ve got to bring fight every single night. … We need to have much more fight.”
They could have some help on Sunday with the return of Jakob Poeltl (groin injury) and Bruce Brown (knee), who could be ready to play after being full participants in practice on Saturday. The team will see how they react on Sunday, but both are expected to play. It would be the season debut for Brown, who had surgery on the knee. Poeltl has missed four games.
Toronto needs to find a way to stop Atlanta’s Johnson, who had 30 points and 15 rebounds in the comeback win on Thursday in addition to his strong game on Saturday.
“I think (Johnson) affects the game in so many ways that you kind of get lost,” said Hawks forward De’Andre Hunter, who had 25 and 26 points, respectively, off the bench over the past two games. “You don’t really focus on his scoring. I mean, I feel like you really saw it at the end of (the game on Thursday). He had a couple assists, couple defensive plays, and obviously he had a couple buckets as well. But I think that’s probably the reason for that, is because he’s doing so much on the court.”
“Jalen is a connector,” Atlanta coach Quin Snyder said. “Good things happen. Whether that’s his ability to get to the rim, doing something for a teammate, finding a teammate cutting for a shot, and it’s huge for us.”
Hawks center Larry Nance Jr. (right hand) was injured on Saturday. Nance had 10 points and 10 rebounds off the bench. Atlanta center Onyeka Okongwu (left knee inflammation) has missed the past four games.
–Field Level Media
