Raptors looking for answers after 126-113 loss to Cavaliers in Game 1

Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic says the team needs to ‘do a better job’ on defence after the Game 1 loss.

There was a short 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 seven 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 were not intimidated by a raucous sold-out crowd of 19,432 fans at Cleveland’s Rocket Arena.

“I think we handled the environment and the crowd and what we were expecting,” said Barnes, who had only reached the post-season once before. “I think we handled that pretty well. The game didn’t go the way we wanted it to.”

The list of things that went wrong was a lot longer, however.

“They had a lot of guys scoring at a high rate. They got some transitions,” said Barnes. “We’ve just got to do better guarding the ball, try to activate and not allow so many easy buckets, where guys were getting easy shots, going to the rim, getting some layups and dunks.

“Get better 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 in the regular season.

“At the end of the day, me shooting nine shots is not going to win basketball games,” said Ingram, who is appearing in his third playoff series. “I’ve just got to figure out ways where I can still be effective while they’re doing whatever defensively.”

Ingram also noted that the Raptors faded at the end of each quarter, allowing the Cavaliers to go on runs that helped them carry the momentum over from period to period.

“I think we just have to be more intentional. We’ve got to know that this is a game that we have to play the full 48 minutes,” said Ingram in his post-game conference. “We have a small margin for error, and we’ve just got to come in more focused and learn from this game.

“If they outscored us in the last three minutes, then that’s the time that we got to tighten up the most.”

Another issue was pacing.

Toronto’s 18.9 fast-break points per game were the most across the entire NBA in the regular season. Against the Cavs they had three points on one fast break.

“They were getting back. I feel like they were getting back,” said Barnes. “Just trying to wait for us, other than them top-blocking (Ingram), everyone else was just trying to stay compact, stopping us from running.”

Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic had another explanation.

“Our biggest problem was our 17 turnovers,” said Rajakovic, who is the first European to coach a team all season into the playoffs. “We did not do a good job of taking care of the ball.

“We had a lot of situations that we were just careless with the ball. We’ve got to do a much better job of controlling that part.”

Rajakovic noted that Toronto missed Immanuel Quickley, its usual starting point guard, who was out with a mild right hamstring strain.

Quickley averaged 16.4 points, 5.9 assists and four 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 is in his second season, started 12 regular-season games and averaged 6.6 points and 5.4 assists.

“Jamal did what he could out there, just trying 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 and 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 watch out for fouls with those guys,” said Barnes. “But, (Shead) did what he could. He was trying to be physical.”

Shead, Ja’Kobe Walter, and rookie centre Collin Murray-Boyles all played over 20 minutes apiece in their first NBA playoff games. Ingram said that inexperience had to be taken into account.

“Emotions running high,” said Ingram. “Some of them might not quite know what’s going on, just trying to be effective offensively and defensively.

“I think the game will slow down a little bit more for them next game, and I think we’ll be better.”

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.

John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press