Darko Rajaković has spent his first playoff run as an NBA head coach making the kind of in-game changes that can swing a series. The Toronto Raptors used that approach to climb out of a 2-0 hole, and now they go into Game 5 tied 2-2 with the Cavaliers on Wednesday in Cleveland.
The clearest sign came in Game 2, when the Raptors were trailing at halftime and Rajaković started adjusting on the fly. Toronto began denying the ball to Cavaliers guards James Harden and Donovan Mitchell in the second half, gave rookie Collin Murray-Boyles a bigger role, and shifted some of the defensive burden on Harden to Scottie Barnes. The Raptors still lost Game 2 and fell into the 2-0 series deficit, but the framework for their recovery was already there.
That plan paid off in Game 3, when Toronto blew out Cleveland at home. RJ Barrett was moved onto Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen, Jakob Poeltl took on Evan Mobley, and the Raptors leaned even harder into making life difficult for Harden and Mitchell before they could even catch the ball. The result was a sharper, more disruptive defense and a series that suddenly looked manageable for a team that had been in trouble just a game earlier.
Rajaković has also spread the offense around instead of forcing everything through Brandon Ingram, whose comment after Game 1 — that he shooting nine shots was not going to win basketball games — created a minor stir. That decision has mattered. Barnes has been averaging 25.8 points per game in the series, Barrett 24.3 and Murray-Boyles 17.0, giving Toronto enough scoring balance to keep Cleveland from keying on one player.
The Cavaliers adjusted, too. After opening with a “blanket Ingram” approach, they shifted their focus to Barnes in Game 4. Toronto still led 38-36 at halftime, and Rajaković tried to keep his group loose by joking, “It’s awesome … We’re shooting (28 per cent) from the field and 15 per cent from the three-point line,” before admitting afterward, “I was lying.” He said he told the players they would shoot better in the second half, then added, “We did not.” The Raptors went just one-for-10 from three-point range after the break.
Even with the missed shots, Rajaković’s fingerprints remain on the series. The Raptors are alive because he kept changing the game before Cleveland could settle into it, and because his team kept following those changes through the rough stretches. The next test is whether those adjustments can travel again on Wednesday night, when the pressure rises and every possession matters a little more.
