{"id":696223,"date":"2026-04-03T17:15:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T17:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/696223\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T17:15:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T17:15:17","slug":"worrying-raptors-inability-is-coming-back-to-haunt-them-with-uncertain-playoff-fate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/696223\/","title":{"rendered":"Worrying Raptors inability is coming back to haunt them with uncertain playoff fate"},"content":{"rendered":"

After an embarrassing loss to the Sacramento Kings on the same night that the 76ers beat the Wizards, the Raptors found themselves in seventh place in the Eastern Conference\u2014outside of the top six and in the dreaded play-in picture<\/a> they worked so hard to avoid earlier in the season. The Raptors and 76ers have an identical 42-34 record, but the 76ers own the tiebreaker because they did something the Raptors couldn\u2019t<\/a>: regularly beat some of the top teams in the Eastern Conference.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Raptors and the 76ers split their season series 2-2. So, the tiebreaker between them comes down to the division record. They play in the Atlantic Division, which has been the toughest one in the Eastern Conference this season. It features two of the top three teams in the conference with the Celtics and Knicks and more teams with their eyes on the playoffs than the other two divisions in the east.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, the Raptors\u2019 and 76ers\u2019 division records came down to their ability to keep up with the Celtics and Knicks. The Raptors failed to do that all season long, compiling a 0-7 record against the two teams so far. The 76ers, meanwhile, beat them twice each, and that difference could very well decide if the Raptors have to fight through the play-in tournament or not.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Raptors have no chance to change the tiebreaker situation with the 76ers<\/p>\n

The Raptors still have three games against division opponents left, while the 76ers are done. But, even if the Raptors won all three games against the Celtics, Knicks, and Nets\u2014which is a big if\u2014they wouldn\u2019t be able to match the 76ers\u2019 nine wins.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Raptors\u2019 only hope is to take care of business in the last six games of the season and make sure that their place in the standings doesn\u2019t come down to a tiebreaker with Philadelphia. The four games against the Grizzlies, Heat, and Nets are must-win games. A victory or two against the Celtics and Knicks also wouldn\u2019t hurt.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even though the 123-115 loss to the Kings\u2014the worst team in the Western Conference\u2014may have made it seem like the Raptors\u2019 regular season would inevitably end in disappointment, there\u2019s still hope. The 76ers have a very difficult four-game stretch with matchups against Minnesota, Detroit, San Antonio, and Houston coming up that could allow the Raptors to jump them in the win column.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Moreover, the Hawks\u2019 1.5-game lead over the Raptors is far from insurmountable.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After an embarrassing loss to the Sacramento Kings on the same night that the 76ers beat the Wizards,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3770],"tags":[7,6,681,680,476,3820],"class_list":{"0":"post-696223","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-raptors","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-raptors","11":"tag-toronto","12":"tag-toronto-raptors","13":"tag-torontoraptors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116341907822379691","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696223","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=696223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}