{"id":30776,"date":"2026-05-04T05:49:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T05:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/30776\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T05:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T05:49:08","slug":"injuries-and-a-brutal-third-quarter-end-the-toronto-raptors-playoff-return-in-game-7-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/30776\/","title":{"rendered":"Injuries and a brutal third quarter end the Toronto Raptors\u2019 playoff return in Game 7 loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

CLEVELAND (AP) \u2014 Scottie Barnes and RJ Barrett did everything they could to try to get the Toronto Raptors into the Eastern Conference semifinals.<\/p>\n

However, a couple of key injuries and a more veteran group ended the Raptors\u2019 first playoff trip in four years.<\/p>\n

Barnes had 24 points and Barrett added 23 in the Raptors\u2019 114-102 loss<\/a> to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday night in Game 7 of their first-round series. <\/p>\n

Toronto was missing All-Star forward Brandon Ingram to a bruised right heel for the second straight game. Point guard Immanuel Quickley missed the entire series because of sore right hamstring.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were down a couple of players and my team needed me out there,\u201d Barnes said. \u201cThat second group, those second-year guys (Jamal Shead and Ja\u2019Kobe Walter) stepped up because were without starters in that series. I\u2019m just proud that people got to see that because I know how good those guys are. I learned that in training camp, going against them every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shead, who started four games in the series, had 14 points in the first half, but was held scoreless after halftime. Walter, who started five games, scored 10 of his 13 points in the second half.<\/p>\n

Barrett sent the series back to Cleveland for a deciding game on Friday night when his 3-pointer from the top of the key with 1.2 seconds remaining in overtime hit off the back rim and bounced high above the backboard before going through the net to give the Raptors a 112-110 victory<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Raptors got off to a fast start during the first half and grabbed a 41-31 lead with 6:33 remaining in the second quarter on a layup by Shead. <\/p>\n

Things began to unravel when the Cavaliers closed the first half on a 11-2 run and tied it at 49. <\/p>\n

That set the stage for the third quarter, when Cleveland took control and outscored Toronto 38-19 to seize control. The Raptors were 5 of 20 from the field and 1 of 7 from beyond the arc in the third.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt like we had them. That\u2019s what\u2019s going to hurt. We definitely could have won this game and won this series,\u201d said Barrett, who averaged 24.1 points and 7.0 rebounds in the series.<\/p>\n

Cleveland also had more offensive rebounds (nine) than Toronto had total rebounds (eight) in the quarter.<\/p>\n

Barnes said the disparity on the boards is what ended up hurting the Raptors the most.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey worked harder than us in this game. They had 20 offensive rebounds. They had four guys crashing every play, even 5-10, 5-11 guys crashing the glass,\u201d he said. \u201cThey were scoring in transition, getting some offensive rebounds. The offensive rebounds were giving them extra possessions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barrett and coach Darko Rajakovic both lauded Barnes for his performance in the series. The fifth-year forward and two-time All-Star averaged 24.1 points, 6.1 rebounds and 8.6 assists in the seven games.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he (Scottie Barnes) shut up a lot of talk, and that\u2019s good. That\u2019s a winning player,\u201d Barrett said.<\/p>\n

Rajakovic added about Barnes: \u201cFor the stage of his career, he gave it all. I don\u2019t want to sound like a broken record, but this is not the best version of Scottie we\u2019re going to see. He\u2019s going to be even better next season.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Raptors made the playoffs for the first time in four years. Barrett, Barnes and Ingram had postseason experience, but the rest of the group lacked it, which is why Rajakovic is hopeful his group can use this as motivation for next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t look at excuses. I think we created a culture that we were one of the hottest teams in the league,\u201d he said. \u201cThis season was an absolute success. I\u2019m very proud. This is going to set us up for a lot of success in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

___ <\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nba<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEVELAND (AP) \u2014 Scottie Barnes and RJ Barrett did everything they could to try to get the Toronto…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[14139,1288,1327,1481,5813,1485,996,9603,3220,14138,1109,1328,1329,49,48,1287],"class_list":{"0":"post-30776","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto","8":"tag-athlete-injuries","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-brandon-ingram","11":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","12":"tag-darko-rajakovic","13":"tag-immanuel-quickley","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-nba-basketball","16":"tag-nba-playoffs","17":"tag-oh-state-wire","18":"tag-ohio","19":"tag-r-j-barrett","20":"tag-scottie-barnes","21":"tag-sports","22":"tag-toronto","23":"tag-toronto-raptors"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}