Wizards Not Exactly At Full Strength For Tonight

The Toronto Raptors will take on the Washington Wizards and have Kyle Lowry in the line-up for the first time tonight. The Wizards enter this game 1-3 on the pre-season, but are likely more concerned with a number of injuries they face. This won't be a great point guard showdown with Lowry and John Wall. The Wizards are going through the pre-season without John Wall who is suffering with a right knee injury.They also are without Nene who was the key piece in a trade Denver that sent JaVale McGee the other way, who infamously ran the wrong way vs the Raptors last season.



Still makes you shake your head doesn't it? Another member of the Wizards gong show is still around in Andray Blatche. But the Wizards would likely rather we talk about Bradley Beal who is expected to be one of the top rookies coming out of this draft class. He was selected third overall and is expected to help John Wall when he is healthy.

Some think this Wizards team will be one of the teams in the fight for that 8th spot in the Eastern Conference. That would be some kind of turnaround if they did. The Wizards are trying to leave there dysfunctional past with all it's ugly memories of guns and Gilbert behind them. 

Will get a chance to see the glass half full edition of the Wizards tonight. The Raptors with Lowry being added to the fold are finally at full capacity more or less. I have said that until Lowry suits up we will not get to see the complete changes that Bryan Colangelo has implemented for this roster this season.

Just like the Jonas debut, this will be a preseason game worth watching. It will be interesting to see how much of Lowry we actually get to see as the plan seems to be that will see all three Raptor point guards. That is good news on the Calderon front who left the last game with tightness in a hamstring. While John Lucas has taken full advantage of Lowry's absence to show off what he can do.

I will be on the radio tonight talking Raptors and NBA at 11:15 PM on The Sports Grind. Check on twitter to confirm the time and use the link to tune in. Also if you haven't listened yet this week check out myself and Josh Lewenberg on This Week in Raptorland as we talked about the topic of Lowry's eventual return to the line-up as well as many other raptor topics. Also we have my interview with DeMar DeRozan, and a clip from our Interview with Jerome Williams.

The season is fast approaching and tonight should be one of the more key games of the pre-season with the debut of Lowry against a depleted Wizards squad visiting the ACC.