Toronto Raptors Injury Report for Game 6 Against Cleveland Cavaliers

The Toronto Raptors and the Cleveland Cavaliers face off in a highly anticipated Game 6 for this first-round Eastern Conference playoff matchup. After leading through three quarters, the lids went on the basket for the Raptors in the fourth quarter of Game 5, when they missed their first eight field goal attempts and finished with just 17 points in the final period. 

Fourth-quarter struggles have been a common theme for the Raptors this season, but Game 5 had a different cause for the meltdown. Two-time All-Star Brandon Ingram exited the contest in the second quarter after reaggravating a heel injury he had been dealing with for several weeks prior. Adding fire to the flame, two-time All-Star Scottie Barnes also suffered an injury to his quad in the second quarter, and while he played through the issue, he was not the same in the second half. 

Finishing with 17 points, 11 assists, and eight rebounds, he only supplied three points and three assists in the final two quarters. While RJ Barrett has been extremely effective for the Raptors this series (averaging 24.4 points and 7.2 rebounds on 53.5% shooting and 46.2% from three, via StatMuse), Toronto needs production from its two superstars to win games in this series. 

According to the official NBA injury report, the Raptors should have optimism heading back home to Scotiabank Arena for Game 6. 

After missing the second half in Game 5, Ingram is officially listed as questionable due to right heel inflammation. He is joined only by starting point guard Immanuel Quickley, who has previously been ruled out for the entire first-round series due to a right hamstring strain. This indicates that Barnes meant what he said in his postgame presser on Wednesday: he’ll be ready for Game 6. 

While it’s obviously going to be hard to speculate on the severity of Ingram’s heel from the outside looking in, there are some notes that fans can take going into the contest. As previously stated, the former Duke Blue Devil has been dealing with the injury since the beginning of this month. It kept him out for three straight games, but he has played through the nagging injury ever since. 

It should be encouraging that if he was willing to play through it in the regular season, it would be reasonable to assume he would do the same in an elimination game in the playoffs. However, the fact that he couldn’t return in the second half of a game where he was retaped and had adrenaline flowing is not a good sign moving forward. The pain or discomfort had to be significant enough that it severely limited his ability to run, jump, or move laterally, so only time will tell if the day off will be enough for him to suit up for the Raptors tonight at 7:30 PM EST.