Darko urges Poeltl to play more aggressively

With the series heading to Toronto, the Raptors head home down two games to none and game three will be a must-win game for the fifth seed of the Eastern Conference. One member who has had a rough series is being challenged by his head coach.

Darko Rajakovic on Jakob Poeltl: "He needs to be part of the solution for us. He needs to be more aggressive. He needs to dominate the glass… He's going to be a big part of Game 3 and I believe he's going to perform really well."

— Josh Lewenberg (@JLew1050) April 22, 2026

Jakob Poeltl has had a rough season overall as his numbers dropped to 10.7 points and 7 rebounds per game after career highs of 14.5 points and 9.6 rebounds per game just a season ago across 57 games. One thing that’s hurt him all year was the injury bug, as he was only able to feature in 46 games this season due to mostly a lingering back injury that came up all the way back in training camp.

But still, coming out of the All-Star break, Poeltl made his long-awaited return after missing over a month’s worth of games, and he had a great stretch of form with three games of over 70 percent shooting from the field, 17 or more points and 8 or more rebounds in the middle of March.

Darko would like to see that version of Poeltl, who was hungry and aggressive as he put up more than 10 shots in each of those 3 games. He’s had a terrible start to the playoffs, where the dual big lineup of Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen is causing headaches for the Raptors, who only have Poeltl as the lone true center on the team.

He comes into game three averaging just two shots a game with three points and five rebounds across 15 minutes per game. If Toronto wants a chance in this series, Rajakovic thinks Poeltl needs to be a part of the “solution.”

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