Toronto Raptors 2025-26 schedule breakdown: Easier start, key games to watch

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The Toronto Raptors will open season 31 with a bit of a rarity — a road game.

For only the seventh time — and first since 2011 — Toronto will begin a season in the United States, this time in Atlanta on Oct. 22 against the vastly improved Hawks. The home opener goes Oct. 24 against Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Damian Lillard-less Milwaukee Bucks.

This is a big season for the Raptors and third-year head coach Darko Rajakovic. The team has missed the playoffs for three straight seasons.

Masai Ujiri is gone, Larry Tanenbaum can be bought out after the year by Rogers, Brandon Ingram and Collin Murray-Boyles have arrived, the Eastern Conference is severely weakened due to injuries to Boston’s Jayson Tatum and Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton, and the fan base, facing ever-increasing ticket prices, is just as eager as everyone involved with the Raptors to see meaningful steps forward.

It will all begin on Sept. 29 at media day in Toronto before the Raptors head to Calgary for training camp and an exhibition game in Vancouver — with others to follow — before tipoff in Georgia.

Here are some instant takeaways and context on the schedule:

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MUCH MORE BALANCE

Last season the NBA gifted the Raptors a brutal opening stretch, resulting in a hole they could never get out of. There were seven quick road games and 12 before November was even over, including four out west. Yes, an extremely easy schedule to finish the year played havoc with the team’s lottery chances, but the damage was done early.

This time they won’t go west until midway through January and don’t do so again until four games in late March. That could be challenging, but they’ll get a couple of weeks to recalibrate before the play-in starts.

TWICE IS NICE FOR FANS

Basketball fans in Toronto can’t ask for much more than a back-to-back featuring Hamilton icon Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the NBA MVP and the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder, followed by a visit by potential future MVP Victor Wembanyama and the suddenly stacked San Antonio Spurs.

The Raptors come out of the all-star break with road games in Chicago and Milwaukee before the Feb. 24 and 25 matchups with the Thunder and Spurs.

Toronto also faces Wembanyama in another set of marquee back-to-backs, this time at the start of the season. The Texas two-step will see the team at Dallas to take on No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg on Oct. 26 and in San Antonio the next night. Two days later, a potential title contender in Houston with newcomer Kevin Durant (only five players have averaged more points at Toronto) will be in town.

BECAUSE IT’S THE CUP

For the third straight year, the NBA will hold its NBA Cup early in the season. Toronto has never advanced past the group stage and this year will take on the Cavaliers in Cleveland on Oct. 31, the Hawks in Atlanta on Nov. 7, host Washington on Nov. 21 and Indiana on Nov. 26.

Eight teams will advance to the knockout rounds: The team with the best standing in group play games in each of the six groups and one “wild card” team from each conference. The wild card will be the team from each conference with the best record in group play games that finished second in its group.

Two more games will be added to every team’s schedule in December once the full NBA Cup schedule is determined.

LONG WAIT FOR INGRAM

Ingram is going to have to wait a long time before getting a chance to exact some revenge on the New Orleans Pelicans franchise that didn’t want to pay him.

Toronto isn’t in Louisiana until March 11 and hosts the Pelicans on March 27.

Ingram last played on Dec. 7, when he suffered a severe ankle injury and was traded to the Raptors in February. He has averaged 19.5 points a game over his nine years in the NBA and is the highest drafted player on the team (second overall in 2016). Ingram’s only the second No. 2 overall pick and fifth top two pick to ever suit up for the franchise.

LAST TIME FOR KYLE LOWRY?

Kyle Lowry is set to play his 20th season, again with Nick Nurse and his hometown Philadelphia 76ers.

Lowry said in April he wanted to play one more year, so this is expected to be it for him. Though he has also said he wants to sign a one-day deal to retire as a Raptor, he’ll first perhaps visit for the last time as an active player in January.

That’s when Philadelphia visits for a baseball-style back-to-back on Jan. 11 and 12.

Expect Lowry to get a rousing sendoff.

DOWN TO THE WIRE

Assuming the key players stay healthy, Toronto should be battling for a playoff or — at worst — a play-in spot and it could all come down to the final stretch.

After the West Coast trip in March, seven of nine games to finish the regular season will be against Eastern Conference foes, including teams like Detroit, Boston and Miami (twice) that could well be of a similar calibre to the Raptors. Those games could still matter a lot.

X: @WolstatSun