{"id":306407,"date":"2025-11-25T18:08:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T18:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/306407\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T18:08:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T18:08:08","slug":"surprising-raptors-rolling-during-eight-game-win-streak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/306407\/","title":{"rendered":"Surprising Raptors rolling during eight-game win streak"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Raptors<\/a> continue to make significant noise in the young NBA season. <\/p>\n

Toronto, who sit second in the Eastern Conference and fourth in the NBA with a 13-5 record, have been a pleasant surprise in the early portion of the 2025-26 campaign. <\/p>\n

After losing 52 games in 2024-25 and 57 the year before, there wasn\u2019t much optimism surrounding the Raptors going into this season with an appearance in the Play-In Tournament being the potential ceiling for the club, according to many pundits. <\/p>\n

But the Raptors have looked like a completely different team this season under third-year head coach Darko Rajakovic and a healthy and seemingly highly motivated Brandon Ingram<\/a>.<\/p>\n

NBA: Cavaliers 99, Raptors 110 Brandon Ingram scored 15 of his season-high 37 points in the third quarter, Scottie Barnes had 18 points and 11 rebounds, and the Toronto Raptors beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 110-99 on Monday night for their eighth straight win. <\/p>\n

With a 110-99 victory over the talented Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> on Monday night, the third time they\u2019ve defeated the team who won 64 games a season ago, the Raps have won eight straight contests, tying their third longest win streak in franchise history. <\/p>\n

The Raptors\u2019 longest win streaks came during the 2019-20 and 2017-18 seasons when they won 11 consecutive games. <\/p>\n

The Raptors will look to make it nine straight on Wednesday night when they host the 2-15 Indiana Pacers in an NBA Cup group stage game. Coverage begins Wednesday at 7pm ET\/4pm PT on TSN4, TSN and the TSN App.<\/a><\/p>\n

Following their matchup against the lowly Pacers, the Raptors hit the road for games against the Charlotte Hornets<\/a> (4-13) and New York Knicks<\/a> (10-6) before returning to Toronto for a four-game homestand against the Portland Trail Blazers<\/a> (8-10), Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> (12-4), Hornets and Boston Celtics<\/a> (9-8) next week. <\/p>\n

Winning 13 of their first 18 games marks their best start since 2019-20, the season following their first championship in franchise history.<\/p>\n

SeasonRecord Through 18 GamesEnd of Season Record2025-2613-5-2024-254-1430-522023-248-1025-572022-239-941-412021-228-1048-34 (First Round)2020-217-1127-452019-2014-453-19 (Second Round)2018-1914-458-24 (NBA Champions)<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old Ingram, who scored a season-high 37 points against the Cavs on Monday night, has been a difference maker for the Raptors this season after being acquired from the New Orleans Pelicans<\/a> ahead of the trade deadline last season. <\/p>\n

Ingram didn\u2019t play a single game with the Raptors in 2024-25 due to an ankle injury, but signed a massive three-year, $120 million extension in February.<\/p>\n

It appears the added rest plus change of scenery has helped considerably.<\/p>\n

The Duke product is averaging 21.6 points, 5.8 rebounds and 3.9 assists over 18 games, shooting 48.6 per cent from the floor. <\/p>\n

Lewenberg: ‘One man wrecking crew’ Ingram carried Raps to win over Cavs TSN Raptors reporter Josh Lewenberg breaks down how Brandon Ingram was able to carry Toronto’s offence in a victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday night. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think one person in the locker room has talked about the streak, and I don\u2019t think Darko will let that creep into our locker room,\u201d Ingram told reporters after Monday\u2019s win. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe take it by the day. We know every day is an opportunity to get better, and we just worry about the next opponent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ingram has looked healthy as the 2016 second-overall pick has dealt with numerous injuries over his career, playing 60 games or more just four times over nine seasons. <\/p>\n

The rest of the Raptors\u2019 core – Scottie Barnes<\/a> (1.5 steals, 1.7 blocks per game), RJ Barrett<\/a> (19.4 points per game on 50.6 per cent shooting) and Immanuel Quickly (6.1 assists per game) – have been healthy and effective as well.<\/p>\n

Toronto\u2019s supporting cast has contributed too, namely backup point guard Jamal Shead<\/a>, who has one of the best assist-to-turnover ratios in the NBA at 4.9. Over his last five games, Shead has 36 assists and just six turnovers. <\/p>\n

Big man Sandro Mamukelashvili<\/a>, who signed a two-year deal with the Raptors this off-season, is averaging 10.4 points and 4.1 rebounds in 18.6 minutes of action behind starting centre Jakob Poeltl<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s are some team stats that have led to the Toronto\u2019s surprising start. <\/p>\n

By The Numbers: Raptors\u2019 Hot StartStatRaptorsLeague RankPoints Per Game1215thField Goal Percentage50.3%Tied for 2ndThree-Point Percentage38.5%3rdAssists Per Game30.4Tied for 2ndRebounds Per Game41.524thPoints Per Game Differential+7.54thPoints Allowed Per Game113.47thField Goal Percentage Against46 per cent10th<\/p>\n

With the 2025-26 season just over 20 per cent complete, it\u2019s still too early to know if the Raptors are currently overachieving and are bound to come back to earth or if they\u2019re a team that can truly compete for top spot in the Eastern Conference. <\/p>\n

Still, this is a start that nobody saw coming, giving strong confidence to Raptors fans that playoff basketball will return to the Toronto this spring for the first time since 2022. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Toronto Raptors continue to make significant noise in the young NBA season. Toronto, who sit second in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":306408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[712,121073,49,48,459,82,96661],"class_list":["post-306407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-apple-news","tag-brandon-ingram-sports-basketball-player-player-statscom-887665","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-toronto-raptors-sports-basketball-team-team-statscom-28"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}