Toronto did not exactly stroll into Friday and land on its feet by accident. This was another reminder that, even with injuries stripping away three of their four leading scorers, the Raptors are still finding enough bite to win games. And this time, the surprise package was Alijah Martin, who erupted for a career-high 27 points in a 121-107 win over the Milwaukee Bucks.
That is the kind of production that changes a team’s short-term outlook. When a reserve steps in and looks ready rather than merely willing, it stops being a feel-good subplot and starts becoming a real rotation story. Toronto needed someone to take advantage of the opening, and Martin did exactly that.
Martin’s outburst gives Toronto a lifeline
Martin’s performance mattered because the Raptors are trying to survive a difficult stretch with a travel-heavy start and injuries to three of their four leading scorers. In that context, 27 points is not just a number. It is evidence that there is still enough functional scoring around the roster to keep the season from wobbling while the injured players are out.
Darko Rajakovic was clear about how much he valued the effort, saying he was really happy for Martin after the guard’s rough summer recovering from knee surgery. That matters here because this was not a fluky one-off burst from a player with no backstory. It was the reward for work, patience and, on Friday, a very useful contribution on both ends of the floor.
And Toronto needed it. The Raptors have already been through a demanding early schedule, yet they have still managed to win six of their first nine games. That is the larger message from this result: the team is not waiting around for perfect health before competing properly.
Memphis arrives with questions of its own
The timing also makes Monday’s visit from the Memphis Grizzlies more intriguing. Memphis opened 6-0, then lost three straight home games, including a 128-97 defeat to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday. That kind of swing tells you plenty about where confidence and momentum currently stand.
Tuomas Iisalo tried to keep the perspective sensible, stressing that one game should not be overvalued and that the focus has to stay on competing. That is sensible enough, but it also hints at the obvious: Memphis is still trying to work out who it is when the easy run disappears.
Toronto, by contrast, already has a cleaner answer. The Raptors swept Memphis in the previous season series, their first sweep over the Grizzlies since the 2018-19 campaign, and they beat the Grizzlies 128-96 in the last meeting on April 3, 2026. Now they get another shot at home, with the same basic question hanging over the matchup: can the Raptors keep making up for absences by finding production from unexpected places?
Right now, the answer looks like yes. And if Martin has anything close to another night like this, Toronto’s short-term rotation depth suddenly looks a lot less fragile than it did a week ago.
