As far as Darko Rajakovic is concerned, the tension of not knowing if his Toronto Raptors will reach the NBA playoffs or stumble into the play-in tournament this weekend is “the beauty of the job.”

The Raptors visited the New York Knicks on Friday and will host the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday in the final two games of the regular season, with a win in either game clinching Toronto’s first playoff berth in four years. If the Raptors lose both games, they’ll have a longer route to the playoffs, having to advance through the four-team play-in tournament.

“This is what we signed up for, and this is very, very exciting for our coaching staff, our team, for the city of Toronto, for our fans,” said Rajakovic at practice on Wednesday. “Just the path that we had in the last two years, in my three years coaching here, just being in a position to plan, to fight for something, to fight for a playoff, to fight for seeding, and all of that is very, very meaningful.

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“I think it’s helping with the development of our players, of our roster.”

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The Raptors were without two key pieces in New York as starting point guard Immanuel Quickley (plantar fasciitis, right foot) and rookie centre Collin Murray-Boyles (neck strain) were ruled out hours before tip-off.

Both played hurt in back-to-back wins over the Miami Heat in Toronto on Tuesday and Thursday. Rajakovic appreciated them playing through the pain, especially Quickley, who he said had a positive impact on the entire roster.

“He allows everybody to go to their roles that they were developing during the whole season. Guys like to play with him. He provides a lot of spacing, opens up the floor.

Toronto also waived guard Tyreke Key on Friday, although he never actually played any minutes with the NBA club. The transaction will allow the Raptors to convert either Alijah Martin or AJ Lawson of Brampton, Ont., from a two-way deal to a standard NBA contract by Sunday, making that player playoff eligible.

The Detroit Pistons, Boston Celtics, New York Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers have all locked up playoff spots in the Eastern Conference, with Detroit clinching the top seed. The Raptors (45-35) were fifth entering play Friday, tied with Atlanta but ahead of the Hawks on tiebreakers.

After the two losses in Toronto, Miami is locked into the play-in for a fourth consecutive year. Entering Friday, the other three teams in the field were the Philadelphia 76ers, Orlando Magic and Charlotte Hornets.

The Raptors haven’t been in the playoffs since the 2021-22 season, when they lost to the Sixers in the first round.

Backup centre Sandro Mamukelashvili said earlier this week that the entire season has been leading up to this weekend.

“We’ve been keeping each other accountable and playing hard. Even though sometimes we have ups and downs, we stay together. We try to figure it out together,” he said. “Coach (Rajakovic) is doing a great job coaching us and helping us get over the humps that we have. It’s amazing to be where we’re at because I don’t think anybody saw us being here.

“Now we’ve just got to lock in and finish strong. It’s not done until it’s done.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 10, 2026.

&copy 2026 The Canadian Press

TORONTO – All season the Toronto Raptors have insisted that they don’t check the standings, the schedule, or the out-of-town scoreboard.

As the regular season started to wind down, however, a handful of Raptors admitted to peeking at the Eastern Conference standings to see how close they are to clinching a playoff spot.

Except Brandon Ingram, who claims he’s shutting out the world now more than ever.

“We’re getting closer and closer to what we want at the end of the season. We just take it game by game,” he said after Toronto beat the Miami Heat 128-114 on Thursday night. “I stopped looking at the standings and I just focus on how I can be my best self on any given night and just continue to be aggressive, find my teammates when they’re open and get some defensive stops.”

Ingram had a season-high 38 points and added seven rebounds and seven assists as the Raptors won both games of the back-to-back against the Heat. Toronto (45-35) moved into fifth in the standings ahead of the idle Atlanta Hawks.

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Although the two teams have identical records, the Raptors are ahead of Atlanta based off of tiebreakers.

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Toronto visits the New York Knicks on Friday and will host the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday in both teams’ regular-season finale. Winning either game will clinch the Raptors’ first playoff berth in four years.

“It’s a good time to be in a rhythm going into these playoffs,” said Ingram of his standout performance. “We take it game by game, try to get better, try to figure out what schemes we want to do for the playoffs, and how do we attack each and every game and have a sense of urgency on both sides of the basketball.

“I think these last two games, it’s a chance for us to have a focus and take things serious, leading them up to and into the playoffs.”

All-star Scottie Barnes got into early foul trouble against the Heat but Ingram stepped up.

He played aggressively in the first half, forcing the Heat to double- or triple-team him on defence, opening up scoring opportunities for his Toronto teammates. Ingram had 10 points in the first quarter and 13 in the second.

Ingram said he knew he had to play with force.

“We’ve beat them three times this year, so coming out early in that game, we knew they were going to give us their best hit, and we had to respond defensively and offensively,” said Ingram. “Tyler Herro came out gunning and made a few shots, and everybody was in attack mode so we had to be able to withstand the first run and just fight back.”

Head coach Darko Rajakovic said that Ingram might actually regret such a strong showing.

“Now he’s in trouble,” said Rajakovic with a smile. “Now we know what he can do, so we’re going to expect it.”

Ignoring the standings and focusing on playing one game at a time was Rajakovic’s edict, one that he’s still sticking with. Asked what his expectations were heading into the decisive weekend, he wouldn’t even look beyond the next 24 hours.

“We’re going to try to beat Miami to the airport because our flights are at the same time,” said Rajakovic to laughter. “Then we go to New York and compete the best we can against New York.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 10, 2026.

&copy 2026 The Canadian Press

TORONTO – Everyone on the Toronto Raptors is hurting but, with three regular-season games left on the schedule and the final playoff spot theirs for the taking, they’re playing through it.

Scottie Barnes had 25 points, eight rebounds and five assists as Toronto earned a critical 121-95 win over the Miami Heat on Tuesday. According to head coach Darko Rajakovic, Barnes took a stiff shot to his ribs in the Raptors’ 115-101 loss to the Boston Celtics two days earlier.

“I’ve been banged up, but, you know, you’ve just got to play through it,” said Barnes after the victory over Miami. “Can’t really focus on that, just try to play with your brain and try to make sure that you feel as good as possible. Trick yourself in that way.

“But just go out there and play with a lot of effort, play with a lot of energy, get better, and just try to win.”

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Toronto (44-35) tightened its grip on the sixth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with the win.

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Miami (41-38) was 10th in the East, holding the fourth seed in the conference’s play-in tournament, three games back of the Raptors.

The two teams meet again Thursday at Scotiabank Arena.

Immanuel Quickley (plantar fasciitis, right foot), Sandro Mamukelashvili (left knee soreness) and rookie centre Collin Murray-Boyles (right quad contusion) were all game-time decisions, but were made available to play for Toronto less than an hour before the opening tipoff.

“Long season, man. It’s hard. It’s tough,” said Murray-Boyles, who had six points and eight rebounds but was plus-17 against Miami. “Obviously, this is like three (collegiate) seasons, all balled into one.

“Definitely tough, but I think it helps me for the future, knowing how to really prepare myself for these type of moments, especially at the end of this season.”

Murray-Boyles had two blocks and a steal as the Raptors turned in an impressive defensive showing.

The Heat have been held to fewer than 100 points just six times this season, but three of those times were against Toronto.

On top of dealing with his right-quad contusion, Murray-Boyles has been managing a sprained left thumb throughout the season. Although it takes a beating in every rebound, block, steal and deflection, the 20-year-old said he has no intention of slowing down.

“I wouldn’t be playing if I did that. That’s my identity, being aggressive,” said Murray-Boyles. “You know, being a defensive pest out there, being active and stuff like that, that’s what I made a name off of.

“I have to do it.”

Quickley started against Miami, scoring three points and adding four assists and four rebounds in 18 minutes of play.

Rajakovic said that, despite the dominant win over the Heat, Toronto still isn’t playing to the best of its abilities.

“Because we’re really banged up still,” he said. “Several guys played banged up, played through a lot of pain.

“That’s the NBA. That’s the part of the season we’re in.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 8, 2026.

&copy 2026 The Canadian Press

TORONTO – The disappointment in RJ Barrett’s face was evident.

The Mississauga, Ont., native blankly stared at the statsheet, taking his time before getting his thoughts out. When he walked out of the press conference, he mumbled while shaking his head in disgust.

Barrett led the Toronto Raptors with 20 points in a 123-115 loss to the lowly Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night. The Kings entered the game tied for the NBA’s worst road record at 6-32, while also having the league’s fourth-worst record.

“We’ve been doing well. We have a solid record, but it’s nights like these where this is a game we’re supposed to win no matter what,” he said when asked about the process of a team that hasn’t been on a playoff run together. “Process or no process, we can’t lose this game. Just straight up what it is.”

Toronto, which entered the contest in sixth place in the Eastern Conference, fell to seventh — a play-in spot — due to a tiebreaker with Philadelphia.

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The Raptors were coming off a road loss to the East-leading Detroit Pistons on Tuesday night and admittedly came out without the necessary energy. And it showed as Toronto was outrebounded 48-32, giving up 19 offensive rebounds.

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“Definitely a tough loss for us,” head coach Darko Rajakovic said. “I think the game was really (about) rebounding. It came down to that they had dominated the glass … we just did not have enough discipline, enough effort to close on those possessions.

“Did a really good job on (DeMar) DeRozan in the first half. But … he can at any point catch fire. He was at two points in the first half, finished the game with 28 … but when you don’t approach the game from the start, with the level of intensity and attention to detail that you need to have, this is the outcome.”

DeRozan and Precious Achiuwa, both former Raptors, were the primary culprits on Sacramento’s end.

DeRozan scored 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting in the fourth quarter, including the dagger three-pointer with 1:05 left amid a 5-0 personal run that pushed the game out of reach.

Achiuwa had 28 points and 19 rebounds, which included an 11-point, 10-rebound showing in the second quarter alone. He entered play with averages of 9.6 points and 6.5 rebounds per game.

“Can’t let him (do) things like that,” Barrett said of Achiuwa’s stat line. “They had a lot of offensive rebounds tonight. Our fight just wasn’t where it needed to be from the beginning of the game.

“Us being in some early foul trouble kind of made us be less aggressive, but we’ve got to understand that we can’t lose the aggressiveness at that point. We’ve got to stay there, just do it without fouling.”

With six games remaining in the regular season, the Raptors sit just two games ahead of eighth-place Charlotte and 1 1/2 games back of fifth-place Atlanta in a tight race for seeding in the East.

“This loss didn’t create urgency, there’s been urgency,” Barrett said. “And I think that’s part of why tonight is frustrating. It’s because we know what it is, we know how close this race is.

“Especially now after tonight, if we don’t come out and fight with everything that we’ve got for these next couple of games, we’ve got to play like our life depends on it.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 2, 2026.

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TORONTO – The Toronto Raptors made history in the first and second quarters of their 139-87 Sunday rout of the Orlando Magic and they didn’t really know or care about it as it happened.

Orlando led by as many as seven points but then the Raptors reeled off a 31-0 run, holding the Magic scoreless for seven minutes and 48 seconds in a span that stretched from the first to the second quarter. That 31-0 stretch was the largest unanswered scoring run by a team in the 30 seasons that the NBA has tracked play-by-play data.

Scottie Barnes, playing out of his natural position as a power forward and acting as Toronto’s point guard, had his 28th double-double of the season with 23 points and a career-high 15 assists. He was instrumental in the dominant 7:48 span but said he was just feeling the flow of the moment.

“I didn’t know that that was even happening,” said Barnes. “I just know we were all just super locked in, just trying to keep causing turnovers and keep playing as hard as we can on defence that it just helped the lead grow for us.”

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The previous record for longest scoring run was when the Dallas Mavericks reeled off a 30-0 span against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Dec. 2, 2023. AJ Lawson of Brampton, Ont., currently on a two-way contract, shuttling between Toronto and the G League’s Raptors 905, played in Dallas’s 30-0 and Toronto’s 31-0 run.

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Backup centre Sandro Mamukelashvili added 19 off the bench. His first substitution helped kick-start Toronto’s historic run and he finished with a game-high plus-47 defensive rating.

“I think it was so fun playing that you just don’t realize anything like (the run). You just keep going,” said Mamukelashvili. “I feel like everybody enjoyed it.

“We were so physical. We were trying to like, trap and hit and just to do some stuff we usually do during practices. So it was just a really fun game.”

It was a critical win for a Raptors team trying to skip the play-in tournament with eight games left in their regular season.

Toronto (42-32) was fifth in the Eastern Conference, half a game up on the Atlanta Hawks (42-33), who held the final playoff spot after Sunday’s games. Orlando (39-35) was eighth in the conference, holding the second play-in spot 2 1/2 games behind the Raptors.

“I know we need every game,” said Barnes. “So then we are pretty constantly checking (the standings).

“We know we need every game, and every game we’ve got to bring it.”

The Raptors are guaranteed to play at least one game once the regular season is over thanks to the Milwaukee Bucks’ 127-95 loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday. That eliminated Milwaukee from the post-season and ensured that Toronto would reach either the play-in tournament or the playoffs.

Mamukelashvili said he’d be lying if he said he doesn’t check the standings.

“I think everybody goes home and checks it. We’re right there,” he said. “We fought throughout the whole year to get ourselves in a good position. We slipped up, we came back.

“Now everything’s so stacked, the margin of error is so small, and I feel like you’ve got to be aware of it.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 29, 2026.

&copy 2026 The Canadian Press