TORONTO – All season the Toronto Raptors have insisted that they don’t check the standings, the schedule, or the out-of-town scoreboard.
Because the regular season began to wind down, nevertheless, a handful of Raptors admitted to peeking on the Eastern Conference standings to see how close they’re to clinching a playoff spot.
Except Brandon Ingram, who claims he’s shutting out the world now greater than ever.
“We’re getting closer and closer to what we would like at the top of the season. We just take it game by game,” he said after Toronto beat the Miami Heat 128-114 on Thursday night. “I ended taking a look at the standings and I just deal with how I could be my best self on any given night and just proceed to be aggressive, find my teammates after they’re open and get some defensive stops.”
Ingram had a season-high 38 points and added seven rebounds and 7 assists because the Raptors won each games of the back-to-back against the Heat. Toronto (45-35) moved into fifth within the standings ahead of the idle Atlanta Hawks.
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Although the 2 teams have similar records, the Raptors are ahead of Atlanta based off of tiebreakers.
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Toronto visits the Latest York Knicks on Friday and can host the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday in each teams’ regular-season finale. Winning either game will clinch the Raptors’ first playoff berth in 4 years.
“It’s a very good time to be in a rhythm going into these playoffs,” said Ingram of his standout performance. “We take it game by game, attempt to recuperate, attempt to determine what schemes we would like to do for the playoffs, and the way will we attack every game and have a way of urgency on either side of the basketball.
“I believe these last two games, it’s a likelihood for us to have a spotlight and take things serious, leading them as much as 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 primary 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 primary quarter and 13 within the second.
Ingram said he knew he needed to play with force.
“We’ve beat them 3 times this yr, so coming out early in that game, we knew they were going to provide us their best hit, and we had to reply defensively and offensively,” said Ingram. “Tyler Herro got here out gunning and made a number of shots, and everybody was in attack mode so we needed to find a way to resist the primary run and just fight back.”
Head coach Darko Rajakovic said that Ingram might actually regret such a powerful showing.
“Now he’s in trouble,” said Rajakovic with a smile. “Now we all know what he can do, so we’re going to expect it.”
Ignoring the standings and specializing in playing one game at a time was Rajakovic’s edict, one which he’s still sticking with. Asked what his expectations were heading into the decisive weekend, he wouldn’t even look beyond the following 24 hours.
“We’re going to attempt to beat Miami to the airport because our flights are at the identical time,” said Rajakovic to laughter. “Then we go to Latest York and compete the most effective we will against Latest York.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 10, 2026.
© 2026 The Canadian Press