TORONTO – The Raptors added Jonas Valanciunas to their active roster Monday, making the Toronto big man available to play.
Valanciunas, who had been sidelined by an ankle injury, wasn’t designated as a starter for Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers, however.
The Raptors went into Monday’s game trailing the Cavaliers two games to one. Game 5 goes Wednesday in Cleveland.
Valanciunas, who badly sprained his ankle in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals versus Miami, tested his ankle in the morning shootaround and pre-game warmups.
Toronto coach Dwane Casey said Valanciunas would see limited playing time if healthy.
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“We’re not going to put him out there and run him long minutes at a time,” he said prior to the game. “He’s been off for a long period of time, so we’ll slowly reintegrate him back in.”
Casey said he expects the Cavaliers to test Valanciunas if he plays.
The Raptors upgraded Valanciunas’s status from “doubtful” to “questionable” before Monday’s game.
The 24-year-old from Lithuania was playing some of the best basketball of his career this post-season, averaging 15 points, 12.1 rebounds and 1.4 blocks in 10 games, and Raptors GM Masai Ujiri said recently Valanciunas would be the best big man in this series “by far.”
Bismack Biyombo has stepped up admirably in Valanciunas’s absence, grabbing 26 rebounds in the Raptors’ Game 3 win.
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