{"id":535175,"date":"2026-01-14T02:52:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T02:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/535175\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T02:52:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T02:52:19","slug":"raptors-a-pleasant-surprise-at-midway-point-of-nba-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/535175\/","title":{"rendered":"Raptors a pleasant surprise at midway point of NBA season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Toronto Raptors forward Scottie Barnes (4) drives to the net as Philadelphia 76ers guard\/forward Trendon Watford (12) and teammate Adem Bona (30) defend during their game in Toronto on Sunday.Frank Gunn\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

A year ago, the Toronto Raptors were torn between pushing for a play-in berth or tanking for a top draft pick. Twelve months later they\u2019re exceeding early expectations and positioned to reach the playoffs for the first time since 2022.<\/p>\n

Head coach Darko Rajakovic was asked to assess how his team was doing after 41 games \u2013 the exact middle of the Raptors\u2019 2025-26 season \u2013 after Toronto\u2019s 115-102 loss<\/a> to the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday. Although the Raptors have a 24-17 record and are fourth in the Eastern Conference, half a game up on the Sixers, Rajakovic said he didn\u2019t want Toronto\u2019s young players to lose sight of their development process.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the best league in the world, so we\u2019ve got to be constantly hungry and humble at the same time,\u201d said Rajakovic on Monday. \u201cI think that\u2019s the key for us: to be hungry and humble at the same time. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve just got to continue pounding the rock and our goal is to improve week by week, month by month, and to play our best basketball at the end of the season, and hopefully the postseason.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toronto had a 30-52 record in the 2024-25 regular season, finishing 11th in the Eastern Conference, 11 games back of the Chicago Bulls for the final play-in spot. They had the seventh-worst record in the NBA but slipped to ninth in the draft order after some bad luck at the Draft Lottery.<\/p>\n

Lowry savours what is likely his final on-court appearance in Toronto<\/a><\/p>\n

Expectations were higher for the Raptors heading into this season, largely thanks to the arrival of forward Brandon Ingram, with bookmakers setting their pre-season over\/under at 39.5 wins. <\/p>\n

With 41 games left in the season, it\u2019s extremely likely that Toronto will surpass last season\u2019s 30 wins and very possible that it will hit the over on 39.5 wins. <\/p>\n

BasketballReference.com gives the Raptors an 89.2 per cent chance of reaching the playoffs, with a 4.3 per cent chance of winning the East and a 0.7 per cent possibility of winning the NBA championship.<\/p>\n

Rajakovic has repeatedly said that Toronto is still in a rebuild, and so he\u2019s still focused on development.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Toronto Raptors’ forward Brandon Ingram (3) drives past Atlanta Hawks’ guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker (7) during a game in Toronto earlier this month.Frank Gunn\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

\u201cPlayers, individually, are getting better. There are a lot of reasons for us to look back and be satisfied with what we achieve, but that doesn\u2019t change the fact that we need to go another 41 games, and every night is a hard matchup for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two brightest spots for the Raptors so far this season are Ingram and Scottie Barnes. <\/p>\n

Ingram is having a bounce-back campaign after he missed most of last season with a sprained left ankle. He\u2019s averaged 21.7 points, six rebounds and 3.7 assists per game, on par with his career numbers.<\/p>\n

Barnes is arguably having the best season of his career, averaging 19.3 points, 8.3 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 1.4 blocks and 1.3 steals, all above the averages of his five-year career.<\/p>\n

Both are in the running to make their second all-star appearance, with Ingram 11th in the Eastern Conference after the second round of fan voting and Barnes 14th.<\/p>\n

An ongoing issue for the Raptors, however, has been injuries to swingman RJ Barrett of Mississauga, Ont., and centre Jakob Poeltl. The pair are two of Toronto\u2019s best interior scorers with Barrett\u2019s drives to the net keeping opposing defences honest and Poeltl\u2019s deft touch around the rim helping on poor shooting nights.<\/p>\n

Without Poeltl\u2019s 7-foot, 253-pound frame in the paint, the Raptors have had to put relatively small lineups on the court and rely on rookie Collin Murray-Boyles \u2013 their first-round pick from this past summer\u2019s draft \u2013 to fill Poeltl\u2019s significantly larger shoes.<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-7 Murray-Boyles said on Jan. 7 that it hasn\u2019t been too difficult to adjust to the NBA.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a different level of basketball, speed, the physicality. It\u2019s just incomparable when it comes to college, for real,\u201d he said after leading Toronto with 15 rebounds in a 97-96 win over the Charlotte Hornets. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot to take in, especially as a first-year player; you have to learn a whole new system. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to learn whole new refs and all that. So just figuring it all out, learning the do\u2019s and don\u2019ts of the league, going around the league, especially with the players and stuff like that, was very important.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Raptors visit the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday, host the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday, and then embark on a five-game West Coast road trip starting Sunday. The NBA\u2019s trade deadline \u2013 where Toronto might address its depth at centre \u2013 is Feb. 5 at 3 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Toronto Raptors forward Scottie Barnes (4) drives to the net as Philadelphia 76ers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":535176,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3769],"tags":[679,10388,10376,7,10389,4500,9436,10390,4821,10371,10382,10383,10378,10372,10370,7678,6682,10387,10381,10375,10401,10373,10374,10380,10377,1943,2679,10391,9876,6,10396,10397,10399,10394,10398,10392,10395,678,207,3817,6870,10385,10386,3559,10384,10393,83,1963,9087,10379,4486,447,10400],"class_list":["post-535175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia-76ers","tag-76ers","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-basketball","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-nba","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-76ers","tag-philadelphia76ers","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/535176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}