{"id":190953,"date":"2026-04-19T22:20:55","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T02:20:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=190953"},"modified":"2026-04-20T07:54:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T11:54:48","slug":"raptors-mulling-lineup-changes-for-game-2-against-cavaliers-what-changes-could-they-make","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/04\/19\/raptors-mulling-lineup-changes-for-game-2-against-cavaliers-what-changes-could-they-make\/","title":{"rendered":"Raptors Mulling Lineup Changes For Game 2 Against Cavaliers, What Changes Could They Make"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Raptors<\/a>‘ first NBA playoff game in four seasons didn’t go quite as planned. As a result, the Raptors are mulling lineup changes for Game 2 of their Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series against the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Raptors “Mulling Lineup Changes” For Game 2 Against Cavaliers, What Changes Could They Make<\/h2>\n

Toronto, in the playoffs for the first time since 2022, was run out of Rocket Arena on Saturday. The Raptors fell to the Cavaliers in the series opener 126-113 as the Cavs shot 54% from the field and made 16 3-pointers at a 50% clip. Heading into the fourth, Raptors trailed by 21 points.<\/p>\n

In the 2025-26 regular season, Toronto finished tied for fifth in the NBA in defensive rating (112.1). In Game 1 against the Cavs, the Raptors posted a defensive rating of 127.1. Not only did Cleveland make their shots, but they also beat Toronto up on the offensive glass, turning their seven offensive rebounds (37.9%) into 13 second-chance points.<\/p>\n

Toronto shot the ball well themselves, knocking down 52% of their attempts and 13 threes at 48%. However, they committed 17 turnovers. While the Cavaliers had 15 turnovers themselves, the Raptors only had three transition points. This was uncharacteristic, as Raptors led the NBA in fastbreak points during the regular season with nearly 19 per game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like they were getting back,\u201d Scottie Barnes<\/a> told Eric Koreen of The Athletic.<\/a> \u201cJust trying to wait for us, other than them top-locking (Brandon Ingram<\/a>). But everyone else was trying to stay compact, stopping us from running.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you could see it was a focus for them to get back in transition,\u201d added RJ Barrett.<\/a>“We ran against them a lot during the year. I think that was a focus. But also, we\u2019ve got to get stops.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the regular season, Toronto swept Cleveland 3-0, winning each game by double-figures. The Raptors averaged 116.0 points against the Cavs, shooting 51.2% from the field and recording 20.7 fastbreak points per game. Ingram (22.7) and Barnes (20.0) each averaged 20+ points per game across the three contests.<\/p>\n

Changes Could Be Coming For The Raptors<\/h3>\n

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According to Johnny Askounis of Eurohoops, Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic was unsurprisingly not happy<\/a> with his team’s performance in Game 1. Rajakovic pointed to the Raptors turnovers, defensive rebounding, and overall defense as reasons for the defeat.\u00a0As a result, Rajakovic is mulling lineup changes, telling Askounis, \u201c<\/em>Every scenario is on the table.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Toronto did receive bad news before Game 1 with Immanuel Quickley<\/a> being ruled out due to a hamstring injury. Jamal Shead<\/a> performed admirably in Quickley’s absence, totaling 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting, including 5-of-6 from the 3. But Shead only had two assists and a -6 plus\/minus rating in 28 minutes.<\/p>\n

Quickley is questionable for Monday’s game<\/a>, per Blake Murphy of Sportsnet. If\u00a0can return to action in Game 2, he should start along with Ingram and Barnes. The Raptors are 41-29 with Quickley in the lineup. Conversely, they are 5-8 without him, including Game 1’s loss.<\/p>\n

Like Quickley, the trio of Barnes, Ingram, and Barrett have started every game they have appeared in. Barrett has missed 25 games, and the Raptors are 12-13 in those games. If Rajakovic is serious about making a change, Barrett could head to the bench. If Barrett comes off the bench and Quickely is available, Shead or Ja’Kobe Walter<\/a> would likely start.<\/p>\n

Still, the Raptors are 17-9 on the season when Quickley, Barrett, Barnes, Ingram, and Jakob Poeltl<\/a> are in the lineup. Those five also outscore their opponents by 7.1 points per 100 possessions when the five players are on the floor together.<\/p>\n

The Last Word On Toronto’s Potential Lineup Change<\/h3>\n

The obvious lineup change for Rajakovic to make is replacing Poetlt with either Sandro Mamukelashvili<\/a> or Collin Murray-Boyles.<\/a><\/p>\n

Mamukelashvili had a career season this year, and the Raptors are 3-1 when he starts with the Raptors’ other four starters. Meanwhile, Murray-Boyles possesses the athleticism and length that could bother the Cavs’ bigs. The Raptors are 8-6 when Murray-Boyles starts with the other four, and this five-man unit has a +3.7 scoring margin per 100 possessions.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Ken Blaze, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Raptors‘ first NBA playoff game in four seasons didn’t go quite as planned. As a result, the Raptors are mulling lineup changes for Game 2 of their Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Raptors “Mulling Lineup Changes” For Game 2 Against Cavaliers, What Changes Could They Make Toronto, in the playoffs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3146,"featured_media":191007,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,1608,9,2,62,3],"tags":[308,49857,49557,3178,1964,3852],"class_list":["post-190953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-raptors","category-basketball","category-cavaliers","category-featured","category-nba","category-news","tag-brandon-ingram","tag-collin-murray-boyles","tag-darko-rajakovic","tag-immanuel-quickley","tag-rj-barrett","tag-scottie-barnes"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190953"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":191175,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190953\/revisions\/191175"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}