SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- All games are not created equal, no matter how loudly NBA coaches bang that 1-out-of-82 drum through the long regular season. That's especially so in the pre-season, when the exhibitions are supposed to build toward something.
So in the last of his club's eight tune-ups, Toronto coach Jay Triano had wanted to look a little harder, and use certain players in combinations a little longer, in what wound up as a 98-90 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves Friday night.
That was the plan, at least, until Hedo Turkoglu turned his right ankle midway through the first quarter and was shut down after halftime in a precautionary move.
Turkoglu, the Raptors' newly acquired point-forward, had been held out of the team's first four games this month (he had played with Turkey's national team in September). He missed two shots in a scoreless five minutes before leaving the court with a slight limp, with trainer Scott McCullough, during a timeout with 3:03 left. Turkoglu came back at the quarter break, walking fine, but was done after eight more uneventful minutes.
"It's not bad,'' said Turkoglu, who said he would have continued in a regular season game. "I've played hurt before.''
It was enough to thwart Triano's hope of upping Turko- glu's minutes and, with them, his familiarity with Chris Bosh and Andrea Bargnani. "I want him to play as much as I can right now,'' the Raptors coach said, happy with the team's defence and rebounding afterward, not so happy with its turnovers and shooting (2-of-20 from beyond the arc).
Bosh scored 27 points with 14 rebounds in 36 minutes, all pre-season highs. Bargnani added 12 and five in 29 minutes against a Minnesota frontcourt missing both Al Jefferson (flu-like symptoms) and Kevin Love (broken left hand). The Raptors grabbed an 18-4 lead thanks to early 7-of-9 shooting but saw that whittled to 46-44 by halftime.
The Timberwolves took and pushed their lead to 11 points deep in the third quarter, while Toronto had 14 turnovers in the middle two periods and shot 12-of-37 -- including Jarrett Jack's 32-foot banked three-pointer at the buzzer to trail 72-64 heading into the fourth.
By that point, the Raptors' bench had been outscored 27-9. The Raptors' last best chance ended at 84-81 on a Bargnani air ball with five minutes left.
And then there was Raptors swingman Antoine Wright, who had to use the minutes available at the Sioux Falls Arena as both his first and his last preparatory game. The fifth-year veteran had been out with a sore right knee since the club's intrasquad scrimmage Oct. 3. So as antsy as that made him to play -- and as eager as Triano was to see Wright mesh with his teammates -- it was just as important that Wright not overdo things.
"I know he's itching to play and he needs to play, and we need our guys to get used to him being on the floor,'' Triano said before the game.
Wright -- who started the second half in Turkoglu's spot and finished with eight points in 27 minutes -- had his own plan for his one pre-season opportunity.
"I plan on just going out there and getting as tired as I possibly can,'' he had said. "I'm going to run on the wings when we get the rebound and I'm going to pressure my man as much as I can, just to see where my wind is.''
Wright's wind was less of an issue than his rhythm. In 11 first-half minutes, he had three turnovers and two fouls, missing his only two shots. Playing with a gray compression sleeve on his right knee, he looked a step out of sync, not quick to the ball. Rusty? It would have been a surprise if Wright weren't.
"I got a little more comfortable as the game went on,'' he said, reporting no trouble from his knee. "They threw me out there with a unit that was already doing good and I kind of disrupted things.''
Of his mini pre-season, Wright added: "I wish I'd have had that time to go out and make mistakes. But this is my fifth year in the league, so hopefully I'm as smart a player as I think I am and I won't make as many mistakes.''
With Wright unavailable, lottery pick DeMar DeRozan planted a flag at the shooting guard spot and averaged 10.9 points, 2.4 rebounds and 26.4 minutes in Toronto's first seven games. But he has shown a rookie's inconsistency too, while shooting 37.9 percent, so the starting job still is unsettled.
Not unlike the whole squad, due to nine new faces and players' various injuries. Eight games in, the next one really counts more - Cleveland, Wednesday, Air Canada Centre.
``This whole week of practice has been good for us, a whole week without games,'' Wright said. ``We've been able to see what the DNA of this team is going to be like.''
A little more DNA and a little less MIA would be even better.
