NBA Power Rankings: Battle for seeding priority of OKC Thunder and peers

All season the Raptors have dealt with injuries to key players in the rotation (or load management) which has resulted in 21 different iterations of the starting rotation — TWENTY ONE.

Here’s a statistic which will probably shock you – Kyle Lowry and Kawhi Leonard have missed 16 and 20 games respectively. The crazy part is they’ve never both missed the same game. That’s been a positive for the Raptors but it’s meant the pair have only played together 37 times this season,

Over the course of the season, we’ve heard how the Lakers failed to reach the playoffs because LeBron missed 18 games (prior to the Lakers beginning to officially tank) or how the Celtics struggled due to chemistry issues trying to figure out all their depth and talent within a system.

Now ask yourself could any of the Raptors main Eastern counterparts have functioned without their top two players for 36 games or accumulated a 25-11 record without them? All the more impressive considering the Raptors were 10-6  without Lowry and only five of those matches came against unseeded teams.

The point is in a season where injury, continuity, and chemistry were key factors to success the Raptors have excelled in spite of the adversity faced in each of these areas.

Schedule particulars:

Tankathon rank for schedule strength of remaining games: 29th

Games Remaining: 12 | Home: 6 | Road: 6

• Versus top 10 offenses: none
• Versus top 10 defenses: four
• Games facing teams over .500: three
• Last 10 games: 7-3
• Back to back sets: one

Key Stats:

Offensive Rating: 7th (112.0)
Defensive Rating: 9th ( 107.3)
Net Differential: 5th (+4.7)

Record: 2nd in EC
Home: 27-7 |Road: 21-12 | Back to back sets:11
Versus the East: 29-12 | Versus the West: 19-7

Week 22, 1-2: Won vs. Lakers, lost @Cavaliers, @Pistons
On tap for week 23:  vs. Knicks, @Thunder, Thunder, Hornets