Raptors lose Brandon Ingram for Game 6 as Cavaliers eye series win

Brandon Ingram was ruled out for Game 6, stripping Toronto of the high-usage scorer it had expected to steady a series now hanging on the edge. Darko Rajakovic said Ingram would miss the elimination game with a sore right heel, and Cleveland entered Scotiabank Arena one win from advancing after taking a 3-2 lead.

The timing sharpened Toronto’s margin for error. Ingram left Game 5 midway through the second quarter after scoring one point in 11 minutes, and his playoff form had already lagged far behind his regular season production. He averaged 21.5 points per game in his first season with the Raptors, but through five postseason games he was at 12 points a night on 19-for-58 shooting and 5-for-13 from three-point range. Without him, Toronto had to redistribute both shot volume and creation across the rest of the rotation, with RJ Barrett, Scottie Barnes and Jamal Shead facing a heavier offensive burden against a Cleveland defense that could now focus more aggressively on Toronto’s remaining primary options.

Game 5 showed how quickly that pressure can turn. Toronto led 74-67 at halftime in Cleveland, then lost control after Ingram exited and never fully recovered from an 8-0 Cavaliers start to the fourth quarter. Toronto shot 7-for-28 in the final period, while Cleveland opened the quarter 7-for-11 and pulled away. The result left Toronto not just down in the series, but searching for offense without the player most capable of stretching the floor and bending the matchup.

The Raptors were not fully healthy elsewhere, either. Scottie Barnes was listed as available for Game 6 despite a quad issue, leaving Toronto to chase survival with one All-Star compromised and another unavailable. The home team had won each of the first five games, which made Game 6 in Toronto a critical swing point: preserve the series, or watch Cleveland close it out on the road.

The larger history only increased the stakes. Cleveland’s Game 1 win was its 11th straight playoff victory over Toronto since 2016, a run that turned every possession into a reminder of how thin Toronto’s margin had become. With Ingram sidelined and Cleveland already on the threshold, Toronto’s path narrowed to a simple equation: find enough scoring, survive long enough to force Game 7, and hope the heel injury did not decide the series before the final buzzer.