The Toronto Raptors stay in Los Angeles for one more night, and the storyline everyone expected is the one that will not happen. Toronto visit the Los Angeles Clippers at Intuit Dome in Inglewood on Monday, November 2, with tipoff set for 10:00 p.m. ET, and Kawhi Leonard will not play against his former team.
Leonard misses his fifth straight game for Toronto with swelling in his left knee. The Raptors announced on October 27 that he would follow a treatment and rehab program and be re-evaluated in one week, and reporting from ESPN’s Shams Charania said imaging showed no structural damage. Monday was Leonard’s only scheduled visit to Intuit Dome this season, and the next meeting between the teams is January 1 in Toronto.
Both Teams On A Back To Back
Neither side gets rest before this one. Toronto opened its four game road trip on Sunday night at Crypto.com Arena, losing 131-125 to the Los Angeles Lakers despite a furious finish. Luka Doncic scored 45 points with 15 rebounds, six assists and five steals, and the Lakers led by as many as 26 points before Toronto outscored them 43-27 in the fourth quarter to make the final margin six.
Scottie Barnes led the Raptors with 29 points in that loss, RJ Barrett added 22 points and 10 rebounds, Jamison Battle scored 20 off the bench and Immanuel Quickley added 12. The defeat dropped Toronto to 3-3 and was their third loss in four games, a stretch that lines up exactly with Leonard’s absence.
The Clippers played Sunday too, losing 124-112 on the road to a Golden State Warriors team that rested Stephen Curry and Draymond Green. Los Angeles are 1-5, have lost five straight since winning their season opener, and are still looking for a first win at home since that opening night. A tired Toronto team facing a desperate Clippers team on the second night of a back to back for both is a recipe for an uneven, high variance game.
Winning Without Leonard
Toronto’s problem is not effort, it is arithmetic. Without Leonard, the defensive attention that used to bend toward him lands on Barnes and Barrett instead, and Sunday showed both sides of that bargain. Barnes and Barrett combined for 51 points against the Lakers, Battle gave the bench real scoring, and the Raptors still needed a near perfect fourth quarter just to make a 26 point hole interesting.
The start matters more than the finish on Monday. Toronto trailed the Lakers 36-23 after one quarter and spent the rest of the night paying for it, committing to a comeback that came up short. Against a Clippers side low on confidence, an early lead changes the crowd, the pressure, and the game. Centre Nate Bittle is also out for Toronto with a foot injury, which thins the frontcourt rotation further on a night when tired legs are guaranteed.
The Clippers have injury problems of their own. Brandon Ingram, Bradley Beal, Max Strus, Jordan Miller and Yanic Konan Niederhauser are all listed out for Los Angeles, which is part of why a roster built to contend has spent the first two weeks of the season chasing its first steady performance.
There is also a standings reality to Monday night. The Eastern Conference does not wait for injured stars, and every game Toronto let slip in October and November is a game they will want back in April. The front office made its bet on Leonard knowing his availability would be managed across the season, and nights like this one are the price of that bet. The Raptors managed his minutes carefully during his first run with the franchise and won a championship doing it, and the current plan follows the same logic, protect the knee now so the player is whole when the games matter most. Until then, the rotation that pushed the Lakers to the final minute on Sunday has to carry the load, starting with a Clippers team that has even less margin for error.
What To Watch
The Raptors do not need this game to define their trip, with a visit to Denver still ahead, but they do need it to stop the slide. Three losses in four have all come without Leonard, and the re-evaluation timeline points toward an update this week rather than a return date, so the group that played Sunday is the group that has to figure it out.
Watch the first quarter, the turnover battle, and how long Toronto’s starters can hold up on short rest. The Lakers scored 131 on Sunday by punishing mistakes, and a Clippers team on a five game skid will happily take the same gifts. If Barnes and Barrett get help early, Toronto can leave Los Angeles with a split. If the slow start travels across town with them, the road trip gets much harder from here.
