Alijah Martin gave Toronto a scoring jolt on Friday, pouring in a career-high 27 points in a 121-107 win over the Milwaukee Bucks. The reserve guard, who has spent the season working back from knee surgery over the summer, turned an injury-hit rotation into a surprise advantage.
That is why the Denver Nuggets vs Houston Rockets match player stats search is landing now even though the game in focus is Toronto's. Fans are looking for the numbers behind a team trying to survive a stretch in which three of its four leading scorers are either hurt or uncertain, and Martin's outburst came at exactly the right moment. He is averaging 6.3 points while shooting 72% from the field and 61.5% from beyond the arc, but Friday was the first time he looked like a player Toronto could lean on for more than a short burst.
Toronto has spent much of the early season on the road, playing six of its first nine games away from Scotiabank Arena, and that kind of schedule makes every healthy scorer matter. The Raptors also have a longer list of absences than they would like: Kawhi Leonard is expected to miss at least two more weeks because of swelling in his left knee, while Scottie Barnes and Immanuel Quickley were questionable for Monday because of left adductor and right hamstring injuries, respectively. Barnes is averaging 23.5 points per game, Leonard 19.5 and Quickley 17.4, so Martin's night came from a spot in the rotation that usually does not have to carry that kind of load.
The challenge is whether one game can grow into something steadier. Toronto does not need Martin to become a top scorer overnight, but it does need proof that his efficient shooting can hold up when the lineup thins out again. There is a difference between a career night and a repeatable role, and the Raptors are about to find out which one it was.
