{"id":712232,"date":"2026-04-17T06:36:46","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T06:36:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/712232\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T06:36:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T06:36:46","slug":"rajakovic-brushes-off-nba-playoffs-pressure-were-not-playing-in-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/712232\/","title":{"rendered":"Rajakovic brushes off NBA Playoffs pressure: \u201cWe\u2019re not playing in Europe\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

2026-04-17T07:56:19+00:00
\n 2026-04-17T07:56:19+00:00
\n 2026-04-17T08:18:02+00:00.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Giannis Askounis<\/p>\n

17\/Apr\/26 07:56<\/p>\n

Eurohoops.net<\/p>\n


\n
\n <\/a><\/p>\n


\n Giannis Askounis <\/a><\/p>\n

\"darko-rajakovic-toronto-raptors\"Cole Burston \/ Getty Images \/ Ideal Image<\/p>\n

With the Toronto Raptors heading to the 2026 NBA Playoffs, presented by Google, 47-year-old Darko Rajakovic compares NBA crowds with Europe<\/p>\n

By Johnny Askounis\/ info@eurohoops.net<\/a><\/p>\n

Toronto Raptors<\/a> head coach Darko Rajakovic used his deep European roots to preview how his squad should compete in the 2026 NBA Playoffs, presented by Google.<\/p>\n

After leading the Raptors<\/a> to a 46-36 record in the 2025-26 Regular Season and the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference, the Cacak native officially becomes the first European-born and raised head coach in league history to navigate a team into the postseason from the start of a campaign<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, his side is preparing to face the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on Saturday. Rajakovic was dismissive of the pressure surrounding a hostile road environment. Drawing a sharp contrast between NBA crowds and the intense atmospheres in the Old Continent, the coach remains focused on the fundamentals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to focus on what we need to do guarding the ball, where we need to be in our protection spots, how we need to box out, and how hard we need to run in transition. Those are the things that are in our control,\u201d he mentioned during a press conference on Thursday. \u201cWe\u2019re not playing in Europe. They\u2019re not going to be throwing bottles at us, and there\u2019s going to be no lasers in our eyes when we\u2019re shooting free throws. So, we\u2019re not going to be dealing with those kinds of obstacles. They\u2019re going to be loud on the other side. So what?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Rajakovic\u2019s journey to this milestone includes a decade as a high-level assistant in the NBA and a stint as the first non-North American head coach in G League history. Earlier in his coaching career, he also served as an assistant coach with the senior national team of Serbia, besides working with Serbian and Spanish clubs.<\/p>\n

Read the latest News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2026-04-17T07:56:19+00:00 2026-04-17T07:56:19+00:00 2026-04-17T08:18:02+00:00. Giannis Askounis 17\/Apr\/26 07:56 Eurohoops.net Giannis Askounis Cole Burston \/ Getty Images \/ Ideal Image…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3770],"tags":[7,6,681,680,476,3820],"class_list":{"0":"post-712232","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\/116418671133302034","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712232","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=712232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}