CLEVELAND – There was a brief list of things that went well for the Toronto Raptors in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Scottie Barnes had 21 points and 7 assists as Toronto fell to the Cavaliers 126-113 on Saturday, leading a young group of Raptors players who had limited or no NBA playoff experience. Despite that, Barnes felt they weren’t intimidated by a raucous sold-out crowd of 19,432 fans at Cleveland’s Rocket Arena.
“I believe we handled the environment and the group and what we were expecting,” said Barnes, who had only reached the post-season once before. “I believe we handled that pretty much. The sport didn’t go the way in which we wanted it to.”
The list of things that went mistaken was rather a lot longer, nonetheless.
“That they had loads of guys scoring at a high rate. They got some transitions,” said Barnes. “We’ve just got to do higher guarding the ball, attempt to activate and never allow so many easy buckets, where guys were getting easy shots, going to the rim, getting some layups and dunks.
“Improve at that, tidy some things up. Just cut their scoring down.”
RJ Barrett of Mississauga, Ont., led Toronto with 24 points. All-star Brandon Ingram had 17 points on nine field-goal attempts, a step down in his team-leading production within the regular season.
Related Videos
“At the top of the day, me shooting nine shots just isn’t going to win basketball games,” said Ingram, who’s appearing in his third playoff series. “I’ve just got to work out ways where I can still be effective while they’re doing whatever defensively.”
Get breaking National news
Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox because it happens so you will not miss a trending story.
Ingram also noted that the Raptors faded at the top of every quarter, allowing the Cavaliers to go on runs that helped them carry the momentum over from period to period.
“I believe we just need to be more intentional. We’ve got to know that it is a game that we’ve to play the total 48 minutes,” said Ingram in his post-game conference. “We have now a small margin for error, and we’ve just got to are available in more focused and learn from this game.
“In the event that they outscored us within the last three minutes, then that’s the time that we got to tighten up essentially the most.”
One other issue was pacing.
Toronto’s 18.9 fast-break points per game were essentially the most across all the NBA within the regular season. Against the Cavs that they had three points on one fast break.
“They were getting back. I feel like they were getting back,” said Barnes. “Just attempting to wait for us, aside from them top-blocking (Ingram), everyone else was just attempting to stay compact, stopping us from running.”
Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic had one other explanation.
“Our biggest problem was our 17 turnovers,” said Rajakovic, who’s the primary European to educate a team all season into the playoffs. “We didn’t do job of taking good care of the ball.
“We had loads of situations that we were just careless with the ball. We’ve got to do a significantly better job of controlling that part.”
Rajakovic noted that Toronto missed Immanuel Quickley, its usual place to begin guard, who was out with a light right hamstring strain.
Quickley averaged 16.4 points, 5.9 assists and 4 rebounds over 70 games for Toronto this past season.
Jamal Shead made his playoffs debut in Quickley’s place, joining a starting five that included Barnes, Ingram, Barrett and Jakob Poeltl. Shead, who’s in his second season, began 12 regular-season games and averaged 6.6 points and 5.4 assists.
“Jamal did what he could on the market, just attempting to guard the ball, stay in front of it, be physical as much as he can,” said Barnes, who was tasked with Barrett and Shead to try to defend Cleveland guards Donovan Mitchell and James Harden.
Mitchell had 32 points and Harden had a double-double with 22 points and 10 assists.
“Obviously, you’ve got to look at out for fouls with those guys,” said Barnes. “But, (Shead) did what he could. He was attempting to be physical.”
Shead, Ja’Kobe Walter, and rookie centre Collin Murray-Boyles all played over 20 minutes apiece of their first NBA playoff games. Ingram said that inexperience needed to be taken into consideration.
“Emotions running high,” said Ingram. “A few of them may not quite know what’s happening, just attempting to be effective offensively and defensively.
“I believe the sport will decelerate somewhat bit more for them next game, and I believe we’ll be higher.”
Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is in Cleveland on Monday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 18, 2026.
© 2026 The Canadian Press