Toronto Raptors: Three players who need to step up during the injury crisis

The Toronto Raptors are in the midst of an injury crisis. Which three players need to step up in the next few weeks?

At some point, injuries will strike any team. It is an undeniable and unfortunate certainty that can hamper a team’s success at any given moment. Usually, injuries only really occur to one player at a time, or maybe two. For the Toronto Raptors, the recent injury scourge has taken a number of key players from the lineup.

Over the last week, the Raptors have been ravaged by injuries and lost four key players from the roster. It started with the loss of Fred VanVleet, who sustained a knee contusion against the Houston Rockets which forced him out of the next game against the Philadelphia 76ers and missed the next X games, but returned against the Washington Wizards.

Then, against the Detroit Pistons, the Raptors lost both Marc Gasol and Norman Powell to significant injuries. Gasol went down early in the first quarter with a hamstring-related injury and Powell exited later in the game with a shoulder injury.

Finally, to make matters worse, we were hit with this news on Thursday evening:

The mention of Pascal Siakam being out indefinitely comes as a shock. Siakam scored 26 points against the Pistons, knocking down a career-high six three-pointers in the win. Without a doubt, he has been the Raptors’ best player this season, so losing him for an unknown amount of time will hurt.

With that being said, it’s now prime time for the Raptors role players to step up. It’s happened before, and there is no doubt that it can happen again, but losing so many key players at once is a lot of adversity to overcome.

Three players need to step up more than ever now, but who are they?