Brandon Ingram and the Toronto Raptors achieved a 136-101 blowout victory in the final game of the regular season against the Brooklyn Nets. The two-time All-Star added 25 points and nine rebounds on 7-for-10 shooting with three field goals from beyond the arc. 

The former No. 2 pick in the 2016 NBA Draft boosted the Raptors to three wins in the final four games with his efficient scoring. He averaged 25.5 points and 6.5 rebounds throughout the final stretch on 57.8% shooting and 53.3% from three (via StatMuse). Winning three games allowed the Raptors to climb to the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference, avoiding the Play-In Tournament and ending the franchise's three-year playoff drought. 

After the most important week of the season for the Raptors, the NBA announced its Conference Players of the Week, which included the former Duke Blue Devil. 

Ingram joins the NBA’s All-Time Leading Scorer, LeBron James, to make up the two players of the week. The former teammates in Los Angeles led their respective teams to 3-1 records and will be contending in the first round of the playoffs this weekend. 

While the most likely scenario for the Raptors was to finish as the sixth seed, they got help from the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat, who beat the Atlanta Hawks and Orlando Magic, respectively. This allowed Toronto to finish tied with Atlanta and one game ahead of Orlando, giving the Raptors the tiebreaker and the fifth seed. 

In their first playoff series since 2022, the Raptors are set to face the Cleveland Cavaliers. They dodged a bullet by not having to play the New York Knicks, whom they are 0-5 against. Alternatively, the Raptors are 3-0 against the Cavaliers this season, albeit all three contests came before the blockbuster trade in which Cleveland acquired 11-time All-Star James Harden. 

It would have been ideal for the Raptors to get home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs, but beggars can’t be choosers, considering they have a guaranteed playoff spot. If they want to win their first playoff series since the Bubble in 2020, Ingram will need to continue his offensive dominance against an average defense (15th in opposing points per game, 115.4). On the other side of the basketball, two-time All-Star Scottie Barnes will need to continue his Defensive Player of the Year case against two of the best scorers in the league, Harden and seven-time All-Star Donovan Mitchell.