Darko Rajaković Guides Raptors to 2-2 Tie With Adjustments
darko rajaković has pushed the Toronto Raptors back into their first-round series, and his adjustments helped drag the matchup to 2-2 before Game 5 in Cleveland. It is his first playoff run as an NBA head coach, and the Raptors will go into Wednesday with the series reset after falling into a 2-0 hole.
Rajaković changed the coverage
The pivot started in Game 2. Toronto came out of halftime with a ball-denial approach against Cavaliers guards James Harden and Donovan Mitchell, and Rajaković also gave rookie Collin Murray-Boyles a larger role. He shifted some of Scottie Barnes’ defensive assignments so Barnes carried more of the load on Harden.
Those changes did not save Game 2, but they changed the series. The Raptors lost that night and trailed 2-0, yet the approach carried into Game 3 at home, where Toronto won in a blowout while using a different defensive map: RJ Barrett handled Jarrett Allen and Jakob Poeltl took Evan Mobley.
Toronto spread the scoring
The offense changed too. After Game 1, Brandon Ingram said, “me shooting nine shots is not going to win basketball games,” and Toronto has not forced everything through him. Barnes has averaged 25.8 points per game in the series, Barrett 24.3 and Murray-Boyles 17.0, a spread that matches the different roles Rajaković has handed out.
Cleveland adjusted as well. The Cavaliers had opened by keying heavily on Ingram, but in Game 4 they shifted their attention to Barnes. Rajaković’s answer at halftime was blunt: “It’s awesome … We’re shooting (28 per cent) from the field and 15 per cent from the three-point line,” he told his team.
Game 4 left room open
He later admitted the message was false. “I was lying. I told them we were going to shoot better in the second half. We did not,” Rajaković said after Game 4. Toronto shot three-of-20 from three-point range in the first half and one-for-10 from deep after intermission, so the series stayed bunched even as the coaching moves kept changing the matchups and the looks.
That leaves the Raptors with a real chance to control the next swing. They visit Cleveland on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. ET, and Rajaković has already shown he is willing to keep rewriting the plan if one coverage stalls. After Game 4, he put it simply: “We’ll leave that for the next game. Whatever it takes. Whatever it takes. Just find a way to win the game.”
