\n
\n\t\tDescrease article font size<\/span>\n\t\t<\/use>\n\t<\/svg>\n\t\tIncrease article font size<\/span>\n\t\t<\/use>\n\t<\/svg>\n
CLEVELAND \u2013 RJ Barrett thinks the Toronto Raptors need to do one key thing in Game 5 of their playoff series against the Cleveland Cavaliers: don\u2019t fall behind.<\/p>\n
The Cavaliers stormed out to an early 2-0 lead within the best-of-seven matchup when Cleveland hosted Games 1 and a pair of, with the Raptors tying it up with back-to-back wins in Toronto. However the Raptors needed to battle back in each those two wins at Scotiabank Arena after giving up results in the Cavaliers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel we now have to do a greater job of not getting down eight or 10,\u201d Barrett said on the court at Cleveland\u2019s Rocket Arena on Wednesday morning. \u201cThose games at home, after all, it\u2019s easier with the group and stuff to assist propel us to get back in the sport.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tRelated Videos<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\n\n
\n
\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t
<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t1:38<\/time>Raptors fans at Jurassic Park react to Game 2 loss against Cavaliers<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>
\n
\n\t
<\/p>\n\t\tPrevious Video<\/span>“><\/p>\n\t\tNext Video<\/span><\/button>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t<\/p>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n
Story continues below commercial<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cBut on the road, we were in that position a bunch of times, down eight, down 10, after which with their crowd it could go the opposite way.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n
\n
Get every day National news<\/h2>\n Get every day Canada news delivered to your inbox so you will never miss the day’s top stories.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
The Raptors tilted the series back of their favour by bogging down Cleveland\u2019s offence, forcing all-star guards Donovan Mitchell and James Harden into isolation plays within the half-court. Cleveland\u2019s frontcourt \u2014 Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen \u2014 was effective at grabbing offensive rebounds and keeping the Cavaliers\u2019 possessions going, so Barrett would love to eliminate that element of the sport altogether.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel limiting offensive rebounds can be huge,\u201d he said. \u201cWe played good defence, so yeah, limiting them to 1 shot as much as possible once we could (will help).<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this point, everybody\u2019s made adjustments. It\u2019s nearly who\u2019s willing to go on the market and fight together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Second-year guard Ja\u2019Kobe Walter, who’s playing in his first NBA playoff series, has been considered one of the Raptors guards tasked with slowing Mitchell. He expected Game 5 to be one other low-scoring slugfest like Toronto\u2019s 83-89 win on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\n
\n\t\t\tMore on Sports<\/button>More videos<\/button>\n\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\u201cI feel it\u2019s really going to be a battle,\u201d said Mitchell before the Raptors morning shootaround began. \u201cThey\u2019re going to return out with the mentality that they\u2019ve got to match our physicality, after which we\u2019re going include the mentality that we\u2019ve got to punch them first within the mouth all 48 minutes.<\/p>\n
\n
Story continues below commercial<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cI feel it\u2019s going to be a battle, loads of execution, loads of focus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Walter had been unwell between Games 2 and three, but he said he feels effective now and that it didn\u2019t affect his play.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 29, 2026.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n
\n\t\t© 2026 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Descrease article font size Increase article font size CLEVELAND \u2013 RJ Barrett thinks the Toronto Raptors need to do one key thing in Game 5 of their playoff series against the Cleveland Cavaliers: don\u2019t fall behind. The Cavaliers stormed out to an early 2-0 lead within the best-of-seven matchup when Cleveland hosted Games 1 and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":326592,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[338],"tags":[29310,585,1938,8857,3491],"class_list":["post-326591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-cavs","tag-game","tag-hope","tag-momentum","tag-raptors"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326591"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":326594,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326591\/revisions\/326594"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}