TORONTO – Chris Boucher sounds like he, and his finger, are ready to go for the Toronto Raptors’ season opener at home Wednesday night against the Washington Wizards.
“It doesn't really hurt when I get the ball and when I'm dribbling, and it doesn't really affect my shooting. So (Raptors vice president of player health and performance) Alex (McKechnie), he looked at it and said I was good depending on how the pain was and there's no pain, so I guess we're ready for the game,” Boucher said Wednesday morning.
Boucher dislocated the middle finger in his left hand just before the pre-season started during a five-on-five drill when, as he said, he was putting his hand up and new teammate Precious Achiuwa came in on him full speed and his finger accidentally got jammed into Achiuwa’s body.
The initial expectation was Boucher would miss a “minimum” of 3-4 weeks, but it looks like the work Boucher did while the team was going through its pre-season has put him ahead of schedule.
“We were just going through the protocols and going through all of the treatments and – I missed all of the pre-season – so I had more time to do treatment when I stayed back here so it felt good,” Boucher said.
Perhaps because of the nature of the finger injury, Boucher mentioned that his conditioning didn’t take a hit, and he should be game-ready for Wednesday night’s game, despite not getting to play in the pre-season.
“Conditioning never really was a problem for me. I've always been running and doing extra work every time, so even though I didn't get game reps I had time to practice, I had time to get workouts in,” Boucher said. “So, I had time to get some workouts in and, obviously, it's not game-time decisions but like it's a pre-season for me even though it's a real game and I've got to get into my groove, but I think I can get that done pretty quickly. It's not the first time I'm coming back from an injury.”
The Raptors forward is coming off a career-year last season where he averaged 13.6 points and 6.7 rebounds per game while shooting 51.4 per cent from the field 38.3 per cent from three-point range across 60 games played.
Because of this potential productivity, Boucher figures to be an important piece of the Raptors season, so news that he could at least be available for the first game of the season is good news.
