TORONTO – Brandon Ingram knew he had Pascal Siakam right where he wanted him.
Ingram and Siakam had been battling one-on-one as time was winding down within the fourth quarter of Wednesday night’s game between the Toronto Raptors and the Indiana Pacers. With the sport tied 95-95 and Siakam defending against him, Ingram drilled a 14-foot pull-up jump shot, putting the Raptors up by two with 0.6 seconds left on the clock.
“I knew he was in foul trouble, and I knew he didn’t need to be overly aggressive, so he was at my mercy at that time,” said Ingram. “I just desired to be super aggressive, super aggressive.
“I saw he kept backing up and I just kept being aggressive and attending to my spots.”
After a full timeout, Montreal’s Bennedict Mathurin missed a 26-foot bank shot for the Pacers, ending the sport.
Ingram finished with 26 points and eight rebounds because the Raptors won their ninth straight game. It was his first game-winning shot for the reason that Recent Orleans Pelicans traded him to Toronto on Feb. 6.
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“Everybody knows why BI is here, and what he does for our team, and there’s no secret there,” said head coach Darko Rajakovic. “He’s doing not only a fantastic job of scoring in those situations, but in addition play making.
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“He’s showed it time and again this season.”
The Raptors are first within the Atlantic Division, two games up on the Recent York Knicks, and second within the Eastern Conference, 1 1/2 games behind the Detroit Pistons.
Toronto finished the group stage of the Emirates NBA Cup an ideal 4-0. That, together with the Milwaukee Bucks’ 106-103 loss to the Miami Heat earlier Wednesday, clinched a top-two seed and residential court within the quarterfinals of the in-season tournament.
Ingram and Rajakovic said the Raptors aren’t paying any attention to their win streak, however the 28-year-old forward said that the in-season tournament helps Toronto prepare for a playoff run.
“It builds confidence,” he said in a post-game conference. “It’s type of kind of an early playoff game, attempting to battle for something.
“It’s all experience for what we would like.”
Scottie Barnes had a double-double with 24 points and 10 rebounds for a banged-up Toronto squad. Immanuel Quickley added 15 points, six assists and five rebounds.
Toronto had an uncharacteristically bad game from three-point range, going 5-for-26 (19.2 per cent) from beyond the arc. The Raptors’ three-point percentage heading into the sport was 37.8 per cent, tied with the Denver Nuggets for sixth best within the NBA.
“You will have to win in alternative ways,” said Quickley. “You’ve got to win whenever you don’t shoot well, you’ve got to win sometimes whenever you turn the ball over, you’ve got to win ugly.
“There’s 82 games within the season, you’re not going to all the time shoot the ball well, but you may all the time play defence. You possibly can all the time bring energy, effort and that’s what we did tonight.”
Toronto backup forward Gradey Dick left the court in the primary quarter and didn’t return after taking a tough fall while going up for an offensive rebound. Rajakovic said after the sport that Dick was superb, but needed to be held out of the sport to watch the league’s concussion protocol.
The Raptors announced earlier Wednesday that swingman RJ Barrett of Mississauga, Ont., can be out for no less than one other week with a sprained knee.
TJ McConnell got here off the bench with 16 points, seven rebounds and 6 assists as Indiana (2-16) lost its third straight. Jarace Walker had 13 points and was a rebound shy of a double-double.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 26, 2025.
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