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It was a perfect opportunity for the scuffling Raptors and they finally took advantage of it. After losing four straight games, and with flaws being exposed all over the court, the Raptors got a weakened Cleveland opponent and the chance to get themselves headed the right direction. It took a bit but Jamison Battle provided an electric jolt of three-point shooting off the bench and Brandon Ingram had nine fourth-quarter points as Toronto rallied for a much needed 112-101 victory. The Cavaliers were missing four starters and, for a team that doesn’t have a lot of depth to begin with, the Raptors needed to take care of business. They were able to seal the road victory when Battle got hot late in the third quarter. A stretch of nearly 12 minutes bridging the end of the second quarter and the start of the third forced Toronto to rally after it seemed they had the game under control. The Raptors didn’t score a basket in the final 7:23 of the second quarter and gave up a 9-0 run to Cleveland to start the third quarter. It turned what looked like a comfortable 12-point lead into a 10-point deficit, forcing the Raptors to scramble while giving the Cavaliers life. Battle, an afterthought through much of the first week of the season, finally ignited the offence by hitting three three-pointers in about a two-minute span that got the Raptors back into the game. Battle finished with 20 points, providing an immense boost off the bench. His sixth and final three-pointer sealed the win and gave Toronto a nine-point lead in the final minute. Ingram and RJ Barrett also had 20 points and Scottie Barnes added 14 as the Raptors improved to 2-4 on the season. With home games against Memphis and Milwaukee leading into a crucial five-game Eastern Conference road swing, blowing a game to a Cleveland team missing Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, Jarrett Allen and Max Strus would have been disappointing. A marked improvement The Raptors cleaned up one glaring deficiency that had popped up repeatedly in the first five games of the season: getting back on defence. They either committed to fight for offensive rebounds or they committed to get back instead of being indecisive and getting caught halfway. “We want to be a team that crashes on the offensive glass, but that cannot be fluff,” Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic said this week of a “high watch rate” and getting caught in between. “We talked to the guys: Either go and get (on the glass) or you gotta get back on defence. You cannot be halfway. “You can’t just watch what’s happening. If you’re not crashing and not getting back on defence, that’s not good. So that’s the number one problem that we got to address and get better at.” Toronto had only 12 offensive rebounds in the game but they gave up only 11 fast-break baskets to the Cavaliers. It forced Cleveland to rely on a half-court, three-point dominant game. That wasn’t enough despite 29 points from Evan Mobley and 14 made threes in 46 attempts. The Raptors may make some noise in the Emirates Cup for the first time. The win over Cleveland came in the first game of the four-game first round for the Raptors, who now have the schedule looking in their favour. They still have to face the Hawks in Atlanta on Friday, but guard Trae Young suffered a knee injury this week. They finish the round-robin portion with home games against Washington, still in the throes of a rebuilding process, and Indiana, already without Tyrese Haliburton and now missing Obi Toppin until February. The pool winner automatically advances to the knockout quarterfinals and the best of the three second-place first round teams also advance. The Raptors were not a factor in the first two years of the in-season tournament. They went 1-3 and were eliminated early in both 2023 and 2024.
