The Toronto Raptors will aim for their fifth straight home win on Thursday night when they take on the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Raptors’ home winning streak includes two victories over the Indiana Pacers. They defeated the Pacers 130-119 on Nov. 18 and again on Tuesday, 122-111.
They will face a tough defense from the Thunder, who have won five of their last six games, including a 133-106 win over the Utah Jazz on Tuesday. Oklahoma City took advantage of 29 Utah turnovers, scoring 45 points off them with strong defensive pressure.
Scottie Barnes and RJ Barrett will be key in leading Toronto’s offense once more. Barnes scored a career-high 35 points on Tuesday, and Barrett added 29. Jakob Poeltl also had a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds, marking his 13th of the season. Toronto shot 54.3 percent from the field.
The Raptors believe they are getting better at closing games, even after watching their 24-point lead in the third quarter shrink to just two points with 6:36 left in the fourth.
“We got really focused on us, how we’re executing on the offensive end and defensive end,” said Toronto coach Darko Rajakovic. “I thought that our execution down the stretch in the last four to five minutes was really, really good. I think we’re getting better in that aspect.”
Barrett added, “I think we’re just starting to figure out how to win some of these games at the end. We’ve also been doing a good job from the start and giving ourselves a lead, so that even when teams make a run, we’re still OK, instead of just going all the way down.”
Barnes explained that the team raised their level of play in the final quarter.
“That fourth quarter, we did a great job locking in, getting stops, the stops that were really needed,” Barnes said. “We weren’t fouling as much as we were in the third quarter. When it came down to really trying to get a stop and focus and lock in, we know we got it done.”
The Raptors have a 6-4 record at home but are just 1-11 on the road.
Toronto turned the ball over 21 times against the Pacers on Tuesday and will face another tough challenge against the Thunder.
“Everybody’s just hunting the ball and trying to get the ball,” said Cason Wallace, who had 12 points and was one of four Thunder players to record three steals each on Tuesday.
“We did a good job from the start of our game having physicality and I think that set the tone,” said Jalen Williams, who scored 28 points and had three steals. “When we can do that early, we’re usually really good at maintaining that through the whole game.”
The Thunder finished with 18 steals. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander added 26 points and three steals, while Aaron Wiggins contributed 16 points and three steals.
Oklahoma City shot 52 percent from the field.
“We just played with great looseness — in a good way — up the floor, sharing the ball and really fed off each other’s energy,” said Thunder coach Mark Daigneault. “We were fast with the ball in terms of passing it up the floor, and then we were forceful on the finishes. That’s what we want to look like in a game where we have a little bit of a feeding frenzy with the turnovers.”
The Thunder have a 7-3 road record.
Oklahoma City won both games against Toronto last season, including one that went to overtime.
