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MIKE CASSESE

Leandro Barbosa and his injured right wrist will be in the lineup Wednesday night when the Toronto Raptors open their season against the New York Knicks at the Air Canada Centre.

The question for how long and to what effect.

The speedy shooting guard has been a bright spot from the Raptors since arriving in Toronto in an off-season trade for Hedo Turkoglu, but he injured his right wrist in a fall in Montreal on Friday and said surgery is in his future, it's just a question of timing.

Barbosa said his problems stem from a surgery he had last season to remove a cyst from his wrist, a procedure that caused him to miss two months of action with the Suns.

Upon being examined due to his latest pain doctors made what he says was a surprise discovery.

"I had a surgery [last season]and I don't know if they didn't do it right or they didn't finish right so they want me to come back for the playoffs [but]there's no ligament at all," he said.

"The surgery I did was to remove a cyst. The cyst was attached to the ligament, so when they took out the cyst the ligament was already bad."

Barbosa practiced Tuesday albeit with his wrist heavily taped. He says his wrist was symptom free until his fall and even though it's sore he wants to play against the Knicks and beyond.

"It's not 100 per-cent, but I'm going to play and be there with my teammates and try to do my best…so if I feel comfortable, everything will be okay. If not then I'll have to do a couple of things.

We'll see how far we go," said Barbosa, who is being counted on to provide scoring punch for the Raptors second unit. "If I don't feel comfortable and I feel like I can't shoot the ball and can't dribble I'll have to go in a different direction."

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