only took nine shots in a rather inactive Game 1<\/a>. He made just three field goals in shooting more and scoring less in Game 2. Seven points in the second game for a player already under question for a Game 1 performance was hardly encouraging.<\/p>\n\u201cI don\u2019t want to make this about what I\u2019m doing,\u201d Ingram whispered Wednesday afternoon. \u201cWhen you\u2019re not going your job, you either stay in it emotionally or you got to figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ingram won\u2019t dismiss the disappointment of the first two games. He actually prefers to wallow in his personal misery just a little before getting ready for Game 3 on Thursday night at Scotiabank Arena.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like to sit in disappointment for a little bit and see where I went wrong,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to understand this isn\u2019t the first time this has happened.\u201d<\/p>\n
His goal now: \u201cTo have fun, play hard, be there for my team.\u201d<\/p>\n
So far, he\u2019s 0-for-3 on that.<\/p>\n
Through two playoff games, the $40-million Ingram has looked a little bit like the worst of playoff DeMar DeRozan in Toronto. That\u2019s not helpful for anyone, least of all the soon-to-be-former owner, Larry Tanenbaum, chairman of the NBA board, who was sitting courtside in Cleveland for two games with a pained expression on his face every times the camera closed up on him.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s some of his money paying Ingram $40 million a year. Even if the historically optimistic Tanenbaum had to be troubled by what he saw of Ingram in the two Cleveland games.<\/p>\n
How does Ingram compare to the Cavs\u2019 stars?<\/p>\n
Donovan Mitchell is paid $46 million by the Cavaliers. That\u2019s big-time money for a big-time player. Mitchell, who averaged almost 28 points a game during the season \u2014 seventh best in the NBA \u2014 has scored 62 points in two games against the Raptors.<\/p>\n
Mitchell has been exceptional in the series. Averaging 31 points against the Raps, Mitchell is second in playoff scoring to date. Taking your breath away on occasion.<\/p>\n
Ingram, averaging 12 a game, sits 60th in playoff scoring.<\/p>\n
Thirty-sixth in NBA salary. 60th in scoring to date. It\u2019s tough to make sense of the Raptors accounting, with $40 million a year paid to Ingram, almost $20 million for Jakub Poeltl \u2014 who is likely to be sent to the bench for Game 3 \u2014 and $32 million for the perpetually injured Immanuel Quickley.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s almost $100 million spent on players under question.<\/p>\n
For now, coach Darko Rajakovic does not seem upset by Ingram\u2019s lack of production, at least not for public consumption.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing around Brandon for a year, he cares about winning so much,\u201d the coach said. \u201cHe wants to play to his own standard. He wants to win. Seven days ago he was Eastern Conference player of the week, he was the best in the world. Everyone was kissing him \u2026 I have the utmost trust in him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Somebody has to.<\/p>\n
Said Ingram, who may or may not have the utmost faith in himself: \u201cI\u2019m confident that I won\u2019t miss all my shots.\u201d<\/p>\n
ssimmons@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When you commit the enormous sum of $120 million to a single player \u2014 doesn\u2019t matter the sport…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3770],"tags":[8735,7,4441,193,3213,864,71424,3715,5445,529,89280,5438,89279,6,681,680,476,3820,38350,5439],"class_list":{"0":"post-716110","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-raptors","8":"tag-auston-matthews","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-brandon-ingram","11":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","12":"tag-demar-derozan","13":"tag-donovan-mitchell","14":"tag-george-springer","15":"tag-immanuel-quickley","16":"tag-john-tavares","17":"tag-kawhi-leonard","18":"tag-kevin-gausman","19":"tag-maple-leafs","20":"tag-mitch-marner","21":"tag-nba","22":"tag-raptors","23":"tag-toronto","24":"tag-toronto-raptors","25":"tag-torontoraptors","26":"tag-vladimir-guerrero-jr","27":"tag-william-nylander"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116450163656047402","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716110","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=716110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}