Breakdown of Raptors' 2025-26 schedule: Easier start, key games to watch

National Post

18 hours ago

The Toronto Raptors will open season 31 with a bit of a rarity — a road game.
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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.
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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.
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What games are y'all coming to? 🧐 pic.twitter.com/sJgd4QmJuU
— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) August 14, 2025
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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.
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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.
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MUCH MORE BALANCE
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.