TORONTO – The Toronto Raptors are feeling a little frustrated as they approach the halfway point of the NBA season, and regular starter R.J. Barrett and Jakob Poeltl miss long stretches.
Luckily, Toronto's bench is learning to pick up the pace.
Backup point guard Jamal Sheed scored a career-high 19 points and added five assists and four rebounds as the Raptors beat Orlando 107-106 on Monday and Toronto remained ahead of the Magic in the Eastern Conference standings. Sheed was on the court for all 12 minutes of the fourth quarter, helping the Raptors close out the game.
“The bench is growing and I think we're just growing as the season goes on,” Sheed said. “We're not trying to stay too high or too low, we're just trying to grow and learn from our mistakes.”
Toronto's starting five, especially Scottie Barnes and Immanuel Quickley, looked sluggish for the second game in a row. The Raptors also got a win on Sunday when they forced the Golden State Warriors into overtime and won 141-127.
Barnes and Quickley combined for two points in the first half Monday against the Magic. Quickley played just 2:43 of the fourth quarter as Sheed took over most of Toronto's playmaking duties.
Related videos
Barnes rebounded slightly in the second half and finished with 13 points and 11 rebounds for the Raptors (20-14), while Brandon Ingram added 17 points and nine rebounds. Grady Dick, who has struggled much of this season, came off the bench with 15 points.
Receive daily national news
Get the day's top news, political, economic and current affairs headlines delivered to your inbox once a day.
“We've been in a lot of the same positions this year where we've given up in those situations and let the game get away from us,” Sheed said of Toronto's resiliency in the fourth quarter. “We are learning and growing as a team.
“And then we have Scotty. Scotty just switched gears, him and BI in that fourth quarter, so just by following them in the lead, we were able to fight back.”
Barrett had the day off for injury treatment as he returns to fitness after missing five weeks of the season with a sprained right knee.
Earlier Monday, the Raptors announced that Poeltl would be out for at least a week as he works through ongoing issues with lower back pain.
Rookie Collin Murray-Boyles, who missed Sunday's game with an undisclosed illness, was instrumental in keeping Toronto in the game against Orlando. He scored just four points, but grabbed 12 rebounds (seven offensive field goals) in 25 minutes off the bench.
“It wasn't easy, especially without a lot of preparation (for the game) because I was quarantined from the team,” said Murray-Boyles, his hand wrapped in an ice pack after falling hard after attempting a rebound. “It was a struggle, but I found my energy later in the second quarter and I just got my spirit back for the rest of the game.
“I feel like I just have to figure out how to bring something to the team, if I was just a rebound or something like that, just to make sure we can get that win.”
Head coach Darko Rajakovic celebrated his second team's victory by singling out Sheed, Dick, Murray-Boyles and Ya'Kobe Walter for their efforts.
“It was great to see their energy, their strength, the way they played, the way they competed,” Rajakovic said. “We lost by 20 and it was really about character.
“Are we going to try to come back from being down 20? But more importantly, we shot about 20 percent early in the game. We kept believing and kept competing.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 29, 2025.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
