TORONTO – With his unflappable, laid-back demeanour, it’s hard to tell if Brandon Ingram is feeling the pressure on the eve of his team’s pivotal Game 3, but he absolutely should be.
Some of that, and maybe a lot of it, is of his own making.
The Toronto Raptors All-Star forward and leading scorer shot 3-for-15 and was held to just seven points in Monday’s 115-105 loss, as Toronto fell behind 2-0 in its first-round playoff series with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Making matters worse, it came on the heels of a Game 1 performance in which he only attempted nine shots, including just one in the second half.
It became a major talking point between games, and not just in the media or among fans. Internally, figuring out how to get Ingram more looks was a focal point in film sessions and game prep. The team spoke about it at length. The player, himself, made it clear that he needed to be more involved in the offence, if not featured.
“At the end of the day, me shooting nine shots is not going to win basketball games,” he said following Saturday’s series opener.
Surely, there would have been pressure on him, regardless. These are the type of moments for which Ingram was acquired. It’s why the Raptors gave him a $120 million contract extension. When things are going well, he’s the hero. When they’re not, he’s always going to be under the microscope. That’s just the nature of the job.
But when you call your shot and don’t deliver, the hot seat gets even hotter, and it’s scalding going into a must-win game. In the history of the league, no team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a best-of-seven playoff series. If the first two games of this series are any indication, the Raptors are not going to be the first. And so, all eyes are on Ingram.
“I’m confident that I won’t miss all my shots,” he said on Wednesday, with the series shifting to Toronto for Thursday’s Game 3 and Sunday’s Game 4. “But I’m also confident in our team. I don’t want to sit up here and make this about what I’m doing on the basketball floor. I know when I’m going the team is effective, maybe more effective, but it’s a collective thing.”
The irony, for all the talk about his nine shots, is that Ingram wasn’t the biggest reason why the Raptors lost Game 1. He probably wasn’t even in the top five. They lost because they were thoroughly outworked and outplayed by a more experienced and more talented team that completely controlled the pace and took them out of their comfort zone.
They made significant progress in Game 2. They said they would play with more effort and more pace, and they did. They said they would look more like themselves, particularly on defence, and they did. They said they would come out with a sense of urgency. For the most part, they did. They weren’t perfect – they committed 22 turnovers, many of them unforced and uncharacteristic – but they played well enough to win. That’s why Ingram’s rough night was so glaring.
“He cares about winning so much,” head coach Darko Rajakovic said. “He wants to play to his own standard. He wants to help his teammates. He wants to win. Seven days ago, he was the Eastern Conference Player of the Week. Everybody was kissing him and saying, ‘You’re the best in the world.’ Now, people are trying to create narratives that are not there. He’s trying really hard. He’s trying to help his teammates. He did not make the shots that he usually makes, but I’ll take those shots all over [again]. I have the utmost trust [in him].”
However, it’s more than just his point production and shooting numbers. Ingram was responsible for five of those 22 turnovers. At one point in the first half, he dribbled the ball off of his foot crossing halfcourt. He only grabbed four rebounds and didn’t get to the free-throw line. Afterwards, Rajakovic was campaigning for the veteran star to get more calls, but he didn’t play with nearly enough force or urgency to warrant that.
It’s hard to imagine Ingram’s first full season in Toronto going much better than it has to this point. He’s stayed healthy, playing 77 games after appearing in 18 the year prior, and logged more minutes than he ever has before during his decade-long pro career. At age 28, he reestablished himself as an All-Star and one of the game’s most lethal mid-range scorers, while leading the Raptors back to the playoffs for the first time in four years. In doing so, he’s already proven a lot of people wrong, and nothing can take that away.
He’s passed every test, but this is the final exam and. like it or not, it’s worth the bulk of the grade. Despite his excellent regular season – 21.5 points, 5.6 rebounds and 3.7 assists on 48 per cent shooting – the rough start to his first playoff series with Toronto will leave a sour taste going into the summer, unless he can turn it around.
“We’ve seen it so many times this year,” Rajakovic said. “Every time he has a bad performance shooting-wise, he bounces back from that very quickly. We believe in BI. Our whole team believes in BI. I’ll go to war and fight with that guy any day of the week.”
After scoring seven points on 3-of-13 shooting in an early-December loss to the Charlotte Hornets, Ingram combined to shoot 22-for-38 in back-to-back 30-point games. He was held to nine points on 3-of-12 shooting against the Houston Rockets in March and then followed it up with 36- and 34-point outings. Despite a late season shooting slump, his best showing of the campaign came in one of Toronto’s biggest games, 38 points against the Miami Heat earlier this month.
Now, he’ll need to prove that he can do it on the big stage and solve a playoff defence. In 10 NBA seasons, Ingram has never won a playoff series. He’s only appeared in 12 playoff games. After a strong postseason debut in 2022 – he averaged 27.0 points in a six-game series loss against the Phoenix Suns – he’s averaging 13.5 points on 34 per cent shooting over his last six playoff games, all losses.
Dean Wade and the Cavs have been physical with him. They’ve used top locks to deny him the ball, made him work to get to his spots, and challenged his shots. But, with a decade of experience in the NBA, he’s seen it all before and, with his elite size and skill, he should be able to overcome it.
With an extra day between Games 2 and 3, he’s had plenty of time to reflect. Every player has a different process for digesting disappointing games, and Ingram has taken an introspective approach.
“It’s tough when you go back [to watch the film] and you’re not doing your job,” he said. “But I like to sit in disappointment for a little bit, see where I went wrong, give myself some gratitude and think about the things that went well, then get back into the fight.”
The fight continues in Toronto this week, and for Ingram and the Raptors, the pressure is on.
