{"id":118397,"date":"2025-01-16T12:13:33","date_gmt":"2025-01-16T17:13:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=118397"},"modified":"2025-01-16T12:13:33","modified_gmt":"2025-01-16T17:13:33","slug":"toronto-suffers-another-injury-ochai-agbaji","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/01\/16\/toronto-suffers-another-injury-ochai-agbaji\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto Suffers Another Injury to Key Player"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Toronto Raptors extended their winning streak to two last night with a dominant win over the defending champion Boston Celtics. Unfortunately, the Raptors didn&#8217;t walk away with the win unscathed. In an all too often occurrence this season, a Raptor had to exit the game early due to an injury. This time,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/agbajoc01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Ochai Agbaji<\/a> had to return to the locker room after injuring his hand.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Ochai Agbaji got 3 stitches on his right hand; he&#8217;s done for the night.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Josh Lewenberg (@JLew1050) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JLew1050\/status\/1879714640512557431?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 16, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Toronto Suffers Another Injury To Key Player Ochai Agbaji<\/h2>\n<h3><strong>Early Exit\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During the second quarter, while out in transition, Agbaji missed a pass. While trying to steady himself, Agbaji put his right hand down on the court. Quickly after this, while getting back on defense, Agbaji grabbed his hand and was seen bleeding on the court. After a timeout was called, Agbaji returned to the locker room and did not return to the game. After <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-ca\/general\/general\/raptors-ochai-agbaji-exits-vs-celtics-with-hand-injury\/ar-AA1xhbBA?ocid=BingNewsSerp\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the game<\/a>, Agbaji told reporters he got three stitches on his right hand after reopening an existing cut. Agbaji <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/boxscores\/202501150TOR.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">played just<\/a> 12:18 minutes, dropping five points with four rebounds and one assist.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Another Raptors Injury\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Agbaji has been the Raptors&#8217; healthiest player this season, appearing in the first 39 games the most on the team. However, he&#8217;s had a tough stretch recently. After an<a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/sports\/basketball\/raptors-share-injury-update-on-ochai-agbaji\/ar-BB1rf2BQ?ocid=BingNewsSerp\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> inadvertent collision<\/a> with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hartjo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Josh Hart<\/a>, Agbaji missed his first two games of the season with a hip injury. Last night&#8217;s game against Boston was only his second game back from his previous injury. The Raptors have yet to put a timeline out for his current injury, but hopefully, Agbaji isn&#8217;t out too long.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong><b>Ochai Agbaji&#8217;s Breakout Season<\/b><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hopefully, the injury will not be too severe for either Agbaji or Toronto&#8217;s sake, as <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/11\/17\/raptors-ochai-agbaji-problem\/\" target=\"_self\">Agbaji is in the middle of a breakout season<\/a>. The fourth-year wing is putting up career numbers across the board, averaging 10.6 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 1.7 assists while shooting 50.8% overall and 40.3% from deep. Agbaji has been a key part of the Raptors defense this season, often guarding the opposing team&#8217;s best wing. With his offense development, Agbaji has become a great 3&amp;D role player and part of the Raptors&#8217; long-term plans.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Who&#8217;s The Raptors Next Man Up?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Toronto has been no stranger to injuries this season, with Raptors players missing a combined <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spotrac.com\/nba\/injured\/_\/year\/2024\/view\/team\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">144 games<\/a> already. The team has had to adopt a next-man-up mentality with the constant injuries. With Agbaji probably absent for at least the next game, Toronto can look to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/walteja01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ja&#8217;Kobe Walter<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/battlja01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jamison Battle<\/a>, and maybe <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mogbojo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jonathan Mogbo<\/a> to fill his minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Battle got some run last night after spending the previous few games with the 905 Raptors. Like Agbaji, Battle is a sharpshooter, averaging 42.3% from deep. While he isn&#8217;t the same defender, the Raptors need the spacing. Walter can also help the Raptors with spacing woes in Agbaji&#8217;s absence, at least on paper. The rookie hasn&#8217;t been the most consistent shooter from deep this season, but the talent and ability are there. Walter has been out of the Raptors lineup over the last couple of games, and this might be a good time to try to get him back into a rhythm. Mogbo has spent most of his time recently with the 905 Raptors, not playing in any of Toronto&#8217;s last five games. However, with the hole in the Raptors&#8217; defense left by Agbaji, Mogbo could help fill it until he gets back.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Toronto Raptors extended their winning streak to two last night with a dominant win over the defending champion Boston Celtics. Unfortunately, the Raptors didn&#8217;t walk away with the win unscathed. In an all too often occurrence this season, a Raptor had to exit the game early due to an injury. This time, Ochai Agbaji [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5210,"featured_media":118415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,1608,62],"tags":[49324,49467,4485],"class_list":["post-118397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-raptors","category-basketball","category-nba","tag-jakobe-walter","tag-jonathan-mogbo","tag-ochai-agbaji"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118397"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118416,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118397\/revisions\/118416"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}