The Raptors have clinched a playoff spot in the East after beating the Nets 136-101. This will be Toronto’s first playoff appearance in four years.
Scottie Barnes closed out his season with an 18-point triple-double, while RJ Barrett and Brandon Ingram contributed 26 and 25 points, respectively.
“It’s a big relief,” Barnes said about reaching the playoffs for the first time since his rookie season, per Michael Grange of Sportsnet (Twitter link).
It wasn’t all good news for Toronto though. Immanuel Quickley left the game after just 17 minutes with right hamstring tightness, according to TSN’s Josh Lewenberg (Twitter link). Quickley has been battling plantar fasciitis in recent weeks, but avoiding the play-in will allow the point guard more time to get healthy before the Raptors’ first-round matchup.
Because they won on Sunday and the Hawks dropped their regular season finale to Miami, the Raptors will enter the postseason as the East’s No. 5 seed, with Atlanta slipping to No. 6.
The Sixers and Magic were also in the hunt for a top-six spot in the East entering Sunday, and while Toronto’s victory kept both teams in play-in territory, the 76ers finished their season with a win over Milwaukee to claim the No. 7 seed. Despite facing a Celtics team sitting their entire starting lineup, Orlando lost on Sunday to slip to No. 8 and will visit Philadelphia in the play-in tournament, with the No. 9 Hornets hosting the No. 10 Heat.
Magic fumbled hard. G League team beat a healthy team fighting for something
Raptors got the 5th seed….
Eli, I’ll have to correct you where you say the Raptors playoff seeding depended on the Magics-Celtics game. The Raptors won the season series against the Magic, so even if the Magic won, they would still place below the Raptors. It was the Hawks game that would affect the Raptors seeding, as a Hawks win would have placed them in 5th instead of the Raptors
Magic should fire Mosely before the playoffs, probably should have fired him a couple of weeks ago. Inexcusable loss today, inexplicably bad season.
Bad news for the Knicks, I would imagine they would much rather play Toronto than Atlanta in the 1st round.
Celtics got lucky, as Atlanta and Charlotte are the only teams in the East that are scary, other than the top four seeds, and they’ll miss both of them in the first round. The Hawks are gonna make KAT run, and he doesn’t like that all that much ,
Should be able to apply constant pressure on Brunson as well. Quinn Snyder vs Mike Brown’s game planning, Who would you rather have? Knicks roster is more talented but this is easily the most interesting 1st round series in the east.
I was sure it was going to be Cavs-Hawks and didn’t mind that match-up too much. I don’t mind this match-up either for the Cavs, if anything, it’s a more favorable match-up. The Raptors are full of inconsistent players. There isn’t one guy on that team that you can really count on. Cavs should be able to win this series in 5/6 games.