Bargnani, Bayless closing in on returns for Raps
Posted January 20, 2012 12:33 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Toronto Raptors will wait until just before they get on the court with the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday night to make a decision on whether Andrea Bargnani or Jerryd Bayless are ready to return to the lineup.
“It’s going to be a game time decision,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said after the morning shootaround.
Bargnani, the Raptors leading scorer, did not practice with his teammates but he is inching closer to a return according to his boss.
“If he doesn’t go today he will go this weekend in Phoenix,” Casey said.
The Raptors coach admitted that Bayless was closer to hitting the court than Bargnani after having had a couple of full practices with the team but that they were in no rush to bring either of them back.
“As an organization we are going to (err) on the side of caution,” Casey said. “We’re going to make sure that they are fully ready to go.”
Bargnani wants to get back to the lineup ASAP according to his coach.
“Andrea’s more chomping at the bit than we are. We want to make sure that we go slowly and he’s fully ready to go.”
The Raptors are mired in the midst of a six-game losing streak and prior to Wednesday’s loss to the Boston Celtics, Casey made a change to his starting lineup, inserting James Johnson in place of Rasual Butler at small forward.
Casey doesn’t expect to make any changes tonight unless Bargnani returns.
“Depends on whether Andrea is ready but if not we’ll probably go with the same group.”
