Raptors Notes: Game-Winning Shot, Barrett, Ingram, Temple
The Raptors‘ season was on the line as RJ Barrett‘s three-point attempt in the waning seconds of overtime bounced high off the back rim Friday night. A miss would mean playoff elimination, while a make would set up a Game 7 Sunday in Cleveland. The delirium that resulted when the ball fell through the net (Twitter video link) will live on as a defining moment in Toronto basketball history, writes Michael Grange of Sportsnet.
“I had a front row to it. I was right there on the block,” Ja’Kobe Walter said. “As soon as I saw the shot go up and I saw it go in the air, it didn’t waver, it kind of just stayed over the basket. I was like, ‘Hold up, that might go in.’”
The Raptors had 10.9 seconds left in OT when they inbounded the ball with a one-point deficit. Scottie Barnes was planning to drive to the basket, but the Cavaliers packed the paint with all five players, forcing him to pass to Barrett, who was three feet behind the three-point line. Barrett said Barnes alerted him to be ready to shoot as they broke the huddle.
“He already told me coming out on the court,” Barrett said, “before we (inbounded) the ball, and he was like ‘I got you, just trust me.’”
Toronto coach Darko Rajakovic said he talked to assistant coaches before the game about setting up Barrett for late opportunities, and like everyone else he was trying to will the ball to go in as it hung in the air.
“I know it was a half of a second, but it looked like an eternity over there to be honest with you,” Rajakovic said. “And I was just like hoping for him, for this city, for everybody, for all the players that is gonna drop down. And thank God it did.”
There’s more from Toronto:
- Barrett will be the focus of a huge decision for the Raptors’ front office this summer, notes Josh Lewenberg of TSN (Twitter video link). The 25-year-old wing will be eligible for an extension, but giving him a new deal would add to the price of an already-expensive core and make it difficult for the team to avoid the luxury tax. That’s why there has been some trade speculation surrounding Barrett, who is headed into the final year of his contract. Lewenberg adds that Barrett’s strong performance in the playoffs has “definitely been opening some eyes inside of the organization.”
- Brandon Ingram‘s status for Game 7 is uncertain after he sat out Friday’s contest with right heel inflammation. Ingram wore a walking boot during Game 6 (Twitter video link).
- Seventeen-year veteran Garrett Temple has been “invaluable” in helping to develop Toronto’s young talent, general manager Bobby Webster tells Marc J. Spears of Andscape. Temple saw limited playing time in 22 games this season, but he made a huge contribution behind the scenes and finished fourth in the Teammate of the Year voting. “There is nobody on the team I trust more about the pulse of the team, what I need to watch and what messaging you can help us with, especially in today’s NBA with so many young kids coming in,” Webster said. “He’s been (mentoring) Scottie for a couple years; we have this young kid Collin Murray-Boyles. He’s a huge mentor and invaluable to us.” Temple will turn 40 this month and will be a free agent this summer, but he wants to play one more season and hopes to remain in Toronto.
Injury Updates: Ingram, Harris, Huerter, F. Wagner, Isaac
As expected, the Raptors will be down their leading scorer as they try to avoid elimination on Friday, per Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca (Twitter link). After being downgraded to doubtful earlier in the day due to right heel inflammation, All-Star forward Brandon Ingram will be sidelined for the Game 6 home contest vs. Cleveland.
Ingram, who exited Game 5 in the second quarter after aggravating a heel issue that sidelined him for three games during the final few weeks of the regular season, is still experiencing pain in that right heel and wasn’t on the court for the portion of Friday’s shootaround. Toronto will also be without starting guard Immanuel Quickley, who will miss the entire series due to a hamstring strain.
On a more positive note for the Raptors, Scottie Barnes wasn’t on the injury report ahead of tonight’s game after Toronto’s other All-Star took a hit to the thigh in Wednesday’s loss.
“He’s feeling good,” head coach Darko Rajakovic said of Barnes (Twitter link via Lewenberg). “It’s awesome to be young and recover quickly.”
Here are more injury updates from around the NBA:
- Pistons starting forward Tobias Harris (left ankle sprain) will be active for Friday’s Game 6 in Orlando, but reserve wing Kevin Huerter (left adductor strain) is out, tweets Hunter Patterson of The Athletic. As we noted earlier on Friday when both players were questionable, Huerter has played a modest role in the series, but Harris has scored at least 16 points in each of the first five games. Detroit is also facing elimination, currently at a 3-2 deficit in the first-round matchup.
- Magic star Franz Wagner will miss his second straight game on Friday due to a right calf strain, and his return doesn’t sound imminent. Head coach Jamahl Mosley said the German forward wasn’t able to do anything at Friday’s shootaround, according to Jason Beede of The Orlando Sentinel. Wagner, who was in a walking boot on Wednesday, suggested ahead of Game 5 that he and the team would take a cautious approach due to the nature of the injury.
- In addition to Wagner, the Magic will be without Jonathan Isaac again on Friday. The veteran big man continues to battle a left knee sprain he suffered on March 12. Mosley said Friday morning that Isaac still hasn’t done contact work, Beede writes. “Just how he responds to each part of treatment,” Mosley said. “Some days it’s feeling a certain way. Some days it might not feel as great. So we’re always going to be cautious and smart about how they respond to each treatment each time they go through it.”
Injury Notes: Ingram, Tatum, Harris, Huerter, Lakers
After initially listing Brandon Ingram as questionable for Friday’s do-or-die Game 6 due to right heel inflammation, the Raptors are downgrading the veteran forward to doubtful, according to Michal Grange of Sportsnet.ca (Twitter link).
Ingram, who exited Game 5 in the second quarter after aggravating a heel issue that sidelined him for three games during the final few weeks of the regular season, is still experiencing pain in that heel and wasn’t on the court for the portion of Friday’s shootaround that was open to the media, tweets Jamal Collier of ESPN.
Ingram was Toronto’s leading scorer during the regular season but has struggled in the first round of the playoffs vs. Cleveland, making just 19-of-58 shots from the floor (32.8%), including only 14-of-45 two-pointers (31.1%). Still, he demands significant defensive attention when he’s on the floor and his absence figures to hamper the Raptors’ offense as they attempt to extend their season on Friday. With Ingram unavailable in Wednesday’s second half, the club made just 15-of-50 (30.0%) field goal attempts.
The good news for the Raptors is that forward Scottie Barnes, who was hobbled in Game 5 after taking a shot to the quad, isn’t listed on the injury report and will be good to go for Game 6.
We have more injury-related notes from around the NBA:
- Celtics forward Jayson Tatum didn’t play the last 16 minutes of Thursday’s loss to Philadelphia. Tatum, who returned in March from a torn right Achilles, was battling a left leg issue, he confirmed after the game, but he downplayed the issue and suggested he’ll be fine for Game 7. “It was my other leg,” Tatum said, per Brian Robb of MassLive.com. “So not the one I injured last year. I wasn’t overly concerned. I came out at four minutes (left in the third quarter) like I was supposed to and just kind of assessed the game. And they took the starters out fairly early in the fourth quarter. So yeah, it was not like that big of a deal.”
- Pistons forward Tobias Harris (left ankle sprain) and Kevin Huerter (left adductor strain) are both listed as questionable for Friday’s Game 6 in Orlando, per Hunter Patterson of The Athletic (Twitter link). Huerter has played a very limited role in the series, scoring just six points in 42 total minutes, but Harris has started and scored at least 16 points in all five games, so his status will be worth monitoring closely ahead of tonight’s contest.
- Outside of Luka Doncic, who isn’t close to returning from his left hamstring strain, the Lakers have an otherwise clean injury report for Friday’s Game 6 in Houston, tweets Jovan Buha. After winning the first three games of the series, the Lakers will get their third chance to close out the Rockets and avoid a Game 7.
Raptors Notes: Ingram, Barnes, Barrett, Murray-Boyles
The Raptors led Game 5 in Cleveland by as many as 12 points on Wednesday, but couldn’t hang on for the victory and will head back to Toronto down 3-2 and looking to stay alive in the series. Most concerning for Toronto now is the status of two of the team’s stars heading into that do-or-die game.
As Jamal Collier of ESPN details, forward Brandon Ingram exited Wednesday’s contest in the second quarter due to right heel inflammation, an issue that bothered him near the end of the regular season, forcing him to miss three games between March 23 and April 1.
“He reaggravated the heel on one play,” Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic told Collier and other reporters after the loss. “We tried to re-tape him. At halftime, he tried to activate to see if he could be ready for the second half, and he was not ready to come and play in the second half. (Thursday) we’ll know more when we do more evaluations.”
Ingram hasn’t been at his best against the Cavs in the first round, making just 19-of-58 shots from the floor (32.8%), including a dismal 14-of-45 two-pointers (31.1%). Still, he was the Raptors’ leading scorer during the regular season, and not having him on the floor to attract defensive attention limits the club’s offensive ceiling.
“We needed him out there on the floor,” Raptors forward Scottie Barnes said after Game 5. “The way they guard him, his shot-making ability when he’s out there on the floor. He makes big plays for us on the defensive end as well.”
For his part, Barnes took a shot to his quad during the second quarter on Wednesday and admitted in his post-game session that it was bothering him for the rest of the night, even though he was able to stay on the court.
“Obviously, it had some effect,” Barnes said, per Collier. “I couldn’t play with that same pace that I was trying to play with. Had a little limp out there, but I was trying to push through it, trying to win the game. I can’t do nothing about it. Just got to get some recovery, let it rest a little bit and be ready Friday.”
We have more on the Raptors:
- With Ingram struggling, RJ Barrett has led Toronto in scoring in the first round, averaging 24.4 points per game on .535/.462/.581 shooting. As Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca writes, Barrett has been huge for the Raptors in the series, having also taken on a wide range of defensive assignments that include guarding bigger players like Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen or scorers like James Harden and Donovan Mitchell. Both Barnes and Jamal Shead described Barrett’s playoff performance as “big-time,” with Barnes lauding his defensive versatility and Shead expressing confidence in his shot-making. “There’s not a shot that he takes in those fourth quarters that we’re like, oh, that’s not RJ’s shot,” Shead said. “We’re cool with it.”
- 2025 lottery pick Collin Murray-Boyles has been a revelation for the Raptors in the playoffs, averaging 15.2 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 2.4 assists per game on 67.3% shooting. While Murray-Boyles was overshadowed during the regular season by rookies like Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel, and VJ Edgecombe, he’s proving that he’s another gem in what looks like an increasingly strong 2025 draft class, writes Eric Koreen of The Athletic.
- In case you missed it, Raptors veteran swingman Garrett Temple finished fourth in Teammate of the Year voting, earning 46 first-place votes from his peers.
Atlantic Notes: Barnes, Pritchard, Stevens, Maxey
The Raptors won Game 4 over the Cavaliers despite missing 26 of 30 three-point attempts and shooting just 32.0% from the field. That’s a feat no team in playoff history has ever accomplished, writes Josh Lewenberg of TSN.
It was an anomalous victory, which makes sense, because it was led by Toronto’s anomalous star, Scottie Barnes. Barnes shot 6-for-15 from the field and 0-for-3 from three, yet he scored or assisted on 35 of the team’s 93 points and was everywhere defensively.
Barnes had an excellent season for the Raptors, getting his second All-Star nod while averaging 18.1 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 5.9 assists per game, and coming in fifth in Defensive Player of the Year voting. Despite his strong showing, he was not widely predicted to be the best player in the series. Yet through four games, he’s been exactly that, writes Michael Grange from Sportsnet.
“He’s just a winning player, man,” said teammate RJ Barrett, who has also had a strong series. “He scores, he moves the ball, he rebounds, he defends, he does everything out there. He has a killer mentality, but I think the biggest thing right now is he is playing with force, he’s really making the defence have to guard him.”
We have more from the Atlantic Division:
- Payton Pritchard scored a playoff career-high 32 points in the Celtics‘ big Game 4 win over the Sixers. He credits the work he’s put in studying how the great players in the league maximize their advantages and skill sets. “I feel like obviously there’s genetic freaks,” Pritchard said. “I’m not one of them. But, like, LeBron (James) is a perfect example, too. He takes great care of his body daily. He makes little sacrifices. He’s talked about his sleep habits, his eating and all that. But even guys like Al Horford and Jrue Holiday, they’re able to play so long because of the habits they created.” Pritchard doesn’t drink, limits his bread and sweets, and changed his sleep routine, all in the search for peak performance.
- Brad Stevens had his work cut out for him last summer after losing nearly his entire frontcourt along with Holiday. While the players and coaching staff deserve immense credit for turning what was thought to be a gap year into a 56-win season, the job Stevens did in identifying talent like Neemias Queta to bring into coach Joe Mazzulla‘s system is deserving of an Executive of the Year award, Chris Forsberg writes for NBC Sports Boston. The award will be officially announced on Tuesday at 12:00 pm Central time.
- Despite getting big man Joel Embiid back for Game 4 on Sunday, the Sixers were blown out 128-96 by Boston. Star guard Tyrese Maxey was uncharacteristically quiet in the first half, scoring seven points on just three shots. He chastised himself for his lack of aggression after the game, Brian Robb writes for MassLive. “That absolutely can’t happen,” Maxey said. “That’s just unacceptable by me. It wasn’t meant to happen that way. We can’t win basketball games with that happening, and I take full responsibility on that one.” Maxey finished with 22 points on 14 shots after attempting at least 20 field goals in each of the first three games.
Atlantic Notes: Embiid, Tatum, Barnes, Fernandez
After previously being listed as doubtful, Sixers‘ star big man Joel Embiid has been upgraded to questionable for Game 4 in Philadelphia on Sunday, notes Tony Jones of The Athletic (Twitter link).
Embiid has been working his way back from appendectomy surgery for around three weeks, with his last game action coming on April 6 in a loss to the Spurs.
The Sixers have fought hard to keep the first-round series close to this point, largely fueled by Tyrese Maxey and Game 2 heroics from VJ Edgecombe. Should Embiid be able to return, he could pose an interesting wrinkle for the Celtics, whose big man rotation has been hit-and-miss through three games.
Given the designation, Embiid will probably go through warm-ups before the final determination on his status is made, Jones writes.
We have more from the Atlantic Division:
- Jayson Tatum hit the dagger to seal the Celtics‘ Game 3 victory over the Sixers on Friday, adding yet another accomplishment to his already-impressive return from injury. Despite his success, he still doesn’t feel fully back, Dan Gelston writes for The Associated Press. “It may not seem like it because I’m back playing, but it was a very, very long time for me not to be doing what I love to do,” Tatum said. “I can’t stress it enough, the fact that I just get to put my uniform on and run out there with the team is a win for me.” Through three games, Tatum is averaging 23.0 points, 10.0 rebounds, and 7.7 assists to 1.7 turnovers per game. Those are strong numbers, though, to his point, the scoring rate would be his lowest postseason average since the 2019 playoffs. He said that he’s not worried about anything other than playing his game the right way.
- Scottie Barnes followed up his Game 3 heroics with another big outing on Sunday as the Raptors won their second straight game to tie the series with the Cavaliers at two games apiece. Barnes scored 23 points along with nine rebounds, four of which were offensive, six assists, and three blocks. When asked if this was what Darko Rajakovic saw coming for his star forward, the head coach said he wasn’t satisfied yet. “No, I expect more from Scottie,” Rajakovic said. “The way he’s playing, he’s at 60% of a player that he’s gonna be in two, three years. Scottie’s gonna be one of the best players in the league, and he’s already one of the best players in the league. How much he cares about winning is pushing him forward to do whatever it takes to win a game. That’s what makes him so special.“
- After Jordi Fernandez and his coaching staff received multiyear extensions from the Nets, he gave a strong endorsement of the team he’s spent the last two years with. “I appreciate it,” Fernandez said, per Brian Lewis of the New York Post. “I’d sign right now to do it for the rest of my career.” With so much still in the air in terms of what the Nets will look like moving forward from a roster standpoint, having stability and security with the coaching staff represents an important anchor point for the franchise. Fernandez knows that now it’s on him to keep pushing the team forward as the Nets look to become competitive again.
Raptors Notes: Barnes, Barrett, Murray-Boyles, Battle
The Raptors’ Game 3 victory over the Cavaliers was powered by a masterpiece from Scottie Barnes, Eric Koreen writes for The Athletic. Barnes scored 33 points and added 11 assists with only one turnover as Toronto cruised to a 126-104 victory to prevent the Cavs from taking a 3-0 lead in the first-round series.
“What he does is just so special,” said teammate Jamison Battle. “We have to play to that level every single night just because our leader is doing it. That’s what you want from your leader.”
The performance was even more impressive given the absence of Immanuel Quickley, who has since been ruled out for the remainder of the series with a hamstring injury, and the ongoing struggles of Brandon Ingram, who scored just 12 points on Thursday.
We have more on the Raptors:
- Also critical in the Game 3 victory was Canadian native RJ Barrett, who was thrilled to be playing his first playoff game in his home country, Michael Grange writes for Sportsnet. Like Barnes, Barrett had 33 points along with five rebounds, five assists, two steals, and six made threes on eight attempts. “He’s destroying that narrative that people think about him,” Barnes said after the game. “He’s helping our team out so much. He’s unbelievable, doing a great job scoring, playing defense, talking, being a leader on the floor. RJ is amazing.”
- Rookie Collin Murray-Boyles saved one of his best performances of the season for when it was most needed, contributing 22 points and eight rebounds in 28 minutes off the bench. In doing so, he showed how important he is to the franchise in both the short- and long-term, Josh Lewenberg writes for TSN. The Raptors needed to nail their lottery pick in the 2025 draft, and it increasingly seems that they did just that.
- There were plenty of Game 3 heroes for the Raptors, both likely and unlikely. Battle is an example of the latter after he had played little more than garbage time in Games 1 and 2 heading into the must-win contest, Kai Gammage writes for Sportsnet. Battle finished the night with 14 points on 4-for-4 shooting from three. He put Toronto ahead early in the fourth quarter with a trio of triples that helped create the momentum the team would ride all the way to the victory.
Eastern Notes: Bulls, Lloyd, Mazzulla, Tatum, More
Among the known candidates for the Bulls‘ open head of basketball operations job, Timberwolves general manager Matt Lloyd is the “obvious frontrunner,” reports Julia Poe of The Chicago Tribune (subscription required).
Lloyd has been a “top target” for the Bulls since they began their front office search, according to Poe, who writes that the veteran executive “cares deeply about the process of evaluating, acquiring and developing talent.” That should make him an obvious fit for a Chicago team that seems to be embarking on a rebuild, Poe adds.
Outside of his strengths as a front office executive, Lloyd – who grew up in the Chicago suburbs – is a match for the Bulls due to his existing connection to the franchise and the city. He worked for the organization beginning in 1994 as a game-day and special projects employee in the team’s video room and was later hired to work in the media relations department. Eventually, he made the move to the Bulls’ front office, where he was eventually promoted to the role of director of college scouting before leaving for a job in Orlando in 2012.
While the Reinsdorfs have vowed to cast a wider net in their search for a top basketball executive this time around, they have a history of not straying too far from what they know, Poe observes.
We have more from around the Eastern Conference:
- A Coach of the Year finalist, Joe Mazzulla has made it clear he believes it’s a “stupid award,” but the Celtics‘ head coach wouldn’t oppose an alternative that honors more than one person on a team’s staff. “I would like to see that changed to staff or organization, for sure. I think those things are important,” Mazzulla said, per Jay King of The Athletic. “If it was Staff of the Year, it’s different, (or) if it’s Organization of the Year. But at the end of the day, I haven’t made one basket all year. Our staff hasn’t made a basket. We haven’t got a block. We haven’t ran back on defense. We didn’t play a back-to-back. We didn’t have to play hurt. We haven’t really done s–t. So if you don’t have the guys you know to be able to put you in position, it doesn’t really matter.”
- Celtics forward Jayson Tatum scored 25 points in the team’s Game 1 blowout of Philadelphia on Sunday, but he admitted after that win that he’s “still rehabbing” from the Achilles tear that sidelined him until March 6. Tuesday’s Game 2 loss provided a reminder of that, writes Steve Buckley of The Athletic. Although Tatum nearly had a triple-double (19 points, 14 rebounds, nine assists), he made just 8-of-19 shots from the field and has now hit only 3-of-15 three-pointers in the series.
- Signing head coach Jordi Fernandez to a contract extension increasing the pressure on general manager Sean Marks in Brooklyn, according to C.J. Holmes of The New York Daily News (subscription required). As Holmes outlines, the extension suggests that Marks believes the Nets have the right coaching staff in place, which means he now needs to get Fernandez the right players to lead the team back to the playoffs.
- With Cavaliers big man Evan Mobley and Raptors forward Scottie Barnes squaring off in the first round of the playoffs, Eric Koreen of The Athletic takes a look at how both players have progressed since being drafted back-to-back in 2021, noting that Mobley and Barnes have shown they’re capable of being foundational players on good teams, though it remains to be seen whether either one is headed for superstardom.
Victor Wembanyama Named Defensive Player Of The Year
Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama has been named the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year for the 2025/26 season, the league announced on Monday (Twitter link). He’s the youngest player in league history to win the award, tweets Shams Charania of ESPN, and is the first player to win it in a unanimous vote, tweets Jared Weiss of The Athletic.
Wembanyama, who received all 100 first-place votes, led the NBA in total blocked shots (197) and blocks per game (3.1) by a significant margin and ranked second in defensive rebounds per game (11.5) despite playing just 29.2 minutes per night. His 28.5% defensive rebounding percentage was the highest mark in the league among qualified players.
The Spurs star also limited opponents to a 42.0% field goal percentage and anchored the NBA’s third-best defense. San Antonio allowed 103.6 points per 100 possessions when Wembanyama was on the court and gave up 113.7 points per 100 possessions when he sat.
Wembanyama was the favorite to earn Defensive Player of the Year honors in 2024/25, but a blood clot prematurely ended his season in February, preventing him playing in the 65 games necessary to qualify for consideration. He missed some time this year due to health issues, but met the 65-game criteria during the final week of the regular season.
Thunder big man Chet Holmgren, who previously finished second in Rookie of the Year voting to Wembanyama in 2023/24, once again finished as the runner-up to his conference rival for a major award — he earned the second-most votes for Defensive Player of the Year, including 76 second-place votes and 11 for third place. Holmgren ranked second in the NBA in blocks per game (1.9) and was the primary interior presence on a Thunder team that had the league’s No. 1 defensive rating (106.5).
Pistons wing Ausar Thompson was the top Defensive Player of the Year vote-getter among perimeter players, coming in third behind Wembanyama and Holmgren with nine second-place votes and 33 third-place votes. Thompson ranked first in the NBA in steals per game (2.0) despite playing fewer minutes per contest (26.0) than the seven players who ranked right behind him in that category. Detroit was sandwiched between OKC and San Antonio with the league’s second-best defensive rating (108.9).
A total of 13 players showed up on at least one Defensive Player of the Year ballot, with Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert and Raptors forward Scottie Barnes rounding out the top five, in that order.
Celtics guard Derrick White, Thunder guard Cason Wallace, Rockets guard Amen Thompson, Hawks guard Dyson Daniels, and Knicks forward OG Anunoby each received multiple votes, while Pistons center Jalen Duren, Warriors forward Draymond Green, and Heat big man Bam Adebayo showed up on one ballot apiece.
The full results can be viewed here (via Twitter).
While Defensive Player of the Year honors can, in some cases, ensure that a player qualifies for a higher maximum salary on his next contract, that won’t be the case for Wembanyama despite the fact that he’ll likely sign a maximum-salary rookie extension with the Spurs during the coming offseason. The Rose Rule criteria will require him to win MVP or DPOY or simply earn an All-NBA spot in 2026/27 in order to qualify for a contract that starts at 30% of the ’27/28 cap (instead of 25%).
Raptors Notes: Inexperience, Adjustments, Ingram, CMB
The Raptors‘ “limitations and inexperience” were significant factors in Saturday’s Game 1 loss in Cleveland, per Eric Koreen of The Athletic. Toronto had the fifth-best defensive rating in the NBA during the regular season largely because the team was so good at forcing turnovers. Those takeaways led to fast-break opportunities, with the Raptors leading the league in transition points.
However, the Raptors were unable to get enough stops on Saturday in a loss that was more lopsided than the final score (126-113) suggests. They also only had three transition points, Koreen writes.
“I feel like they were getting back,” Scottie Barnes said. “Just trying to wait for us, other than them top-locking (Brandon Ingram). But everyone else was just trying to stay compact, stopping us from running.”
“I think you could see it was a focus for them to get back in transition,” added RJ Barrett, one of the biggest beneficiaries when the Raptors are able to score on the move. “We ran against them a lot during the year. I think that was a focus. But also, we’ve got to get stops.”
While some players pointed to improved effort as a necessity heading into Game 2, Koreen believes the larger issue is the Cavs are the more experienced and talented team, which makes them more adept at making in-game adjustments.
Here’s more on the Raptors:
- Head coach Darko Rajakovic is mulling lineup changes ahead of Monday’s game, according to Johnny Askounis of Eurohoops. “Every scenario is on the table,” said Rajakovic, who pointed to turnovers, defensive rebounding and overall defense as improvement areas for Game 2.
- Another adjustment Rajakovic was focused on was getting Brandon Ingram more involved offensively, as Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca relays (Twitter links). The All-Star forward had 17 points on Saturday but attempted just one field goal in the second half. “We had a long day yesterday watching film, long meetings this morning, great conversations today,” Rajakovic said Sunday. “So, we’re going to have some solutions and try to adjust. But, definitely, we’ve gotta involve Brandon much more in our offense and we have a plan to do so.” For his part, Ingram said he needs to up his aggression and find ways to score on and off the ball, Lewenberg adds.
- In an interesting interview with Forbes contributor Mark Medina, lottery pick Collin Murray-Boyles discusses his growth over his rookie season, prioritizing team success over individual accolades, and his nagging left thumb injury, which he admits will likely continue to bother him for the rest of 2025/26. “I know the team needs me,” Murray-Boyles said. “I know I’m a big part of what Darko needs with the energy that I bring, the defensive intensity and being a play-maker in our offense. I’m trying to get back into the flow of our game and how we play. I’m just trying to impact it.”