The Oklahoma City Thunder aim to extend their winning streak to four games Friday against the undermanned Toronto Raptors.
Chet Holmgren had 35 points and 14 rebounds Wednesday night as the Western Conference-leading Thunder (48-20) defeated the visiting Utah Jazz 119-107.
The Raptors (23-46), meanwhile, lost their eighth in a row on Wednesday, 123-89 to the visiting Sacramento Kings. Immanuel Quickley (personal) was added Wednesday to the long list of Raptors on the sidelines.
The Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who was born in Toronto and is from nearby Hamilton, Ont., will enter Friday’s game in Canada after scoring 31 points with seven assists against the Jazz.
Gilgeous-Alexander became the 13th player in NBA history to score 30 points or more 50 times in a single season. He is the fifth to do it in the last 35 seasons, joining Michael Jordan (twice), James Harden, Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady.
Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic feels that his team still has a good attitude despite the struggles.
“It’s just a desire to do better,” Rajakovic said. “Everybody’s eager to perform better, to compete better. A lot of players are playing outside of their roles and something they’re not accustomed to.
“And nobody’s expected from this group to be something that they’re not, but they really got to be stars in their roles. They got to do small things for each other and that’s going to really help them to perform better and to be competitive in all of those games.”
Gary Trent Jr. scored 18 points on Wednesday for the Raptors, who have dropped 10 of their past 11 games.
Quickley was added to the list of missing players that includes Scottie Barnes (hand), Jakob Poeltl (finger), RJ Barrett (personal), Chris Boucher (knee) and D.J. Carton (ankle).
“When you’re going through situations like this, it takes time and it’s not happening overnight,” Rajakovic said. “And we had a couple of games that we were very competitive against good teams. Tonight, that was not the case.
“We missed Immanuel Quickley as well, adding to the list and then during the game we lost Jontay Porter [illness] as well. We’re just like going down the stretch and just, you know, we’re pretty thin right now.”