At 7:00 p.m. ET at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Canada the Atlantic Division-leading Raptors (6-7) will try to raise themselves up to .500 against the scuffling Brooklyn Nets (3-10) who will be without their top two players, point guard Deron Williams and center Brook Lopez. Live stream the game here; Nets fans can follow the action on 101.9 WFAN FM, while Raptors fans can tune in to SportsNet 590 The Fan.
It may be early in the season, but the Nets can ill afford to continue losing games at their current clip; right now they are on a five-game skid.
"It's tough when -- look at the record, 3-10, 3-11, whatever our record is -- and know we've dug ourselves quite a big hole, no matter if we've got the injuries or not," Paul Pierce said. "We still feel like we're talented enough to win these type of games."
Tonight won't be easy, even though the Raptors aren't exactly top-flight competition. The Nets are a weak 1-7 away from Barclays Center, and have given up nearly 105 points per road contest. Tonight they'll deal with Rudy Gay, who is rapidly becoming a multi-faceted star for the Raptors.
"He's our star player," coach Dwane Casey said. "So he's going to have a lot of roles: leader, point forward, rebounder, defender. He's our guy, and we're going to have to roll with it." In fact, Toronto is better off with Gay piling up stats in all categories as opposed to scoring. While he leads the team with 20.2 points per game, he's inefficient with a 38.1 percent field goal mark. The Raps are also just 1-5 when he tops 20 points.
They also have an emerging star in the frontcourt by the name of Jonas Valanciunas, who has drawn rave reviews from teammate DeMar DeRozan. "JV is always going to play hard, that's him man," DeRozan said. "Even when he gets a little frustrated, he's going to figure out what he can do to help us win on both ends of the court."
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