TORONTO – Toronto Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic doesn’t like to get ahead of himself, instead having his players just focus on the game in front of them.

They made one small exception on Friday night.

As they prepared to play the Washington Wizards, the Raptors spoke about how a win — coupled with an Indiana Pacers’ loss — would help them advance to the knockout stage of the Emirates NBA Cup for the first time in the in-season tournament’s three-year history.

“Everybody said to not play around with this game, just come out there with the mentality to just go and get a great win to make sure we qualify,” said reserve centre Sandro Mamukelashvili. “I think we came out, we did that now we’ve just got to lock in for the next game, but we’re really happy.

“As everybody says, job ain’t

See Full Page