After initially listing Brandon Ingram as questionable for Friday’s do-or-die Game 6 due to right heel inflammation, the Raptors are downgrading the veteran forward to doubtful, according to Michal Grange of Sportsnet.ca (Twitter link).
Ingram, who exited Game 5 in the second quarter after aggravating a heel issue that sidelined him for three games during the final few weeks of the regular season, is still experiencing pain in that heel and wasn’t on the court for the portion of Friday’s shootaround that was open to the media, tweets Jamal Collier of ESPN.
Ingram was Toronto’s leading scorer during the regular season but has struggled in the first round of the playoffs vs. Cleveland, making just 19-of-58 shots from the floor (32.8%), including only 14-of-45 two-pointers (31.1%). Still, he demands significant defensive attention when he’s on the floor and his absence figures to hamper the Raptors’ offense as they attempt to extend their season on Friday. With Ingram unavailable in Wednesday’s second half, the club made just 15-of-50 (30.0%) field goal attempts.
The good news for the Raptors is that forward Scottie Barnes, who was hobbled in Game 5 after taking a shot to the quad, isn’t listed on the injury report and will be good to go for Game 6.
We have more injury-related notes from around the NBA:
- Celtics forward Jayson Tatum didn’t play the last 16 minutes of Thursday’s loss to Philadelphia. Tatum, who returned in March from a torn right Achilles, was battling a left leg issue, he confirmed after the game, but he downplayed the issue and suggested he’ll be fine for Game 7. “It was my other leg,” Tatum said, per Brian Robb of MassLive.com. “So not the one I injured last year. I wasn’t overly concerned. I came out at four minutes (left in the third quarter) like I was supposed to and just kind of assessed the game. And they took the starters out fairly early in the fourth quarter. So yeah, it was not like that big of a deal.”
- Pistons forward Tobias Harris (left ankle sprain) and Kevin Huerter (left adductor strain) are both listed as questionable for Friday’s Game 6 in Orlando, per Hunter Patterson of The Athletic (Twitter link). Huerter has played a very limited role in the series, scoring just six points in 42 total minutes, but Harris has started and scored at least 16 points in all five games, so his status will be worth monitoring closely ahead of tonight’s contest.
- Outside of Luka Doncic, who isn’t close to returning from his left hamstring strain, the Lakers have an otherwise clean injury report for Friday’s Game 6 in Houston, tweets Jovan Buha. After winning the first three games of the series, the Lakers will get their third chance to close out the Rockets and avoid a Game 7.
I mean, Celts definitely should’ve brought their starters back in when they cut the lead to 12 with 7 minutes left. How often has riding the bench players that got you back into the game after a big deficit all the way to the end ever resulted in a win? No you’re staring at a game 7 against a team that’s hot and basically fully healthy.
Since JT is back celtics team chemistry ain’t the same … Hero ball again. C’s had no chance to reach ECF.
Mad MAZ JB & JT era is over …
White is gone for sure
Bradley being Ex of the year for tax cuts makes no sense
No, I disagree. The mistake in this series is not using our young and energetic Celtics. Suddenly Coach Joe has shortened the rotation relying on Jaylen and Jason way too much. We did great this season because we used our depth. Celts look much better when we have Luka Garza, Baylor Scheierman, Jordan Walsh and Hugo in there with Payton Pritchard running the team. That energy, that excitement, that magic, that crashing of the boards is gone. Now the Celts are flat. Our offense has crashed with only 11 points in the 4th quarter in that terrible 5th came loss. And now only 14 points in last night’s loss in the 3rd quarter after 23 and 26 points quarters in the first half. What happened to our usual 30+ quarters? Now it’s do or die after giving Philly the momentum. Sorry Joe, but shortening our rotation eliminated our offense and damaged our D.
So can the nba already give up on the “Brandon Ingram is a great player” narrative?
I feel like it was always like “he is about to turn corner” but he never does. He has had multiple shortcomings, he gets into a great situation in Toronto, gets his easy stats but when they really need him…he vanishes.
The mid range heavy playstyle simply wont get you far in the nba nowadays. A healthy dose of it is nice, but shooting mid range shots instead of layups is….bad. Just look at how much success KD, Booker, Derozan had. Not all 2s are equal and if you arent getting layups, you are worse already.
Raps need to trade BI