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.
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.
© 2026 The Canadian Press
