TORONTO – The Toronto Raptors are well aware that they need to find a way to play a consistent 48 minutes and hold on to leads against the NBA’s best teams.
The only question is: how?
“I think we have to be better at communicating when we have the momentum to keep the momentum, not getting so caught up into being up 10 by the fourth quarter, actually just pushing even harder when we get those leads like that,” said all-star Brandon Ingram on Friday after stepping off the court at OVO Athletic Centre, the Raptors’ practice facility. “I think it falls on all of us.
“We have to have communication at that time to have a push, another push, until the game is over.”
The Raptors led by as many as 10 points on Tuesday night in a 116-107 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. The next night, Toronto led the San Antonio Spurs by as many as 15 points and had a 12-point advantage heading into the fourth quarter.
Those losses dropped the Raptors to 4-15 against the league’s top 10 teams with three of those wins against the Cleveland Cavaliers before they acquired 11-time all-star James Harden in a trade with the Los Angeles Clippers on Feb. 4.
Ingram said that consistency was the focus of Toronto’s practice on Friday.
Get daily National news
Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
“We went over the things that we could do a little bit better, some of the lapses that we had during the games, in both games, on the defensive side of the ball, screen and roll,” said Ingram. “We just had a few miscommunications that could have helped us out, some of our fourth quarter execution, just trying to pick a pace up in the fourth quarter and not slow down as much.”
The loss to San Antonio was the fifth time this season that Toronto had lost after holding a double-digit lead, the most in the NBA. Head coach Darko Rajakovic said that it wasn’t possible to stop blowing leads, that it’s not a switch that can be flipped.
“We also had a bunch of games that we were down 10, 15 and we came back and won the game,” said Rajakovic. “So is the recipe to be 15 points down so we can get back in the game and win? Maybe there’s the solution, right?
“It really comes down to execution of every single play.”
Rajakovic also pointed to two injuries on Wednesday that limited the Raptors’ ability to close out against the Spurs.
Rookie centre Collin Murray-Boyles, who had been tasked with defending San Antonio star Victor Wembanyama, left the game early after he aggravated a sprained left thumb. All-star Scottie Barnes, who suffered a right quad contusion against OKC, was struggling to walk by the fourth quarter against San Antonio.
Murray-Boyles rested on Friday but Barnes went through the whole practice.
Toronto (34-25) is still in a playoff position, sitting in fifth in the Eastern Conference, a game ahead of the Philadelphia 76ers (33-26). Ingram said that although he was disappointed in the back-to-back losses, “it felt good” to test his team’s mettle against the Western Conference’s two best teams.
“The thing that I love about this group is the resiliency,” said Ingram, noting that Toronto was down by 25 to OKC but battled back. “We had a chance to shift the momentum, but we made a couple mistakes that we can learn from.
“I’m just happy to be in those games, being able to go back to the film and learn and see what we can do better for the next game.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 27, 2026.
© 2026 The Canadian Press
