Drake Ices Out His Courtside Seats Again For Raptors Playoff Game

BY Zachary Horvath
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2016 NBA All-Star Saturday Night
TORONTO, ON - FEBRUARY 13: Drake attends the 2016 NBA All-Star Saturday Night at Air Canada Centre on February 13, 2016 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by George Pimentel/Getty Images)
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It appears Drake wasn't in the building for the Toronto Raptors playoff game last night, but he did tease "ICEMAN" again with his seat stunt.

The Toronto Raptors hosted their first home playoff game in four years last night, but Drake wasn't able to be there. However, he did make his presence felt by pulling his iced-out courtside seats stunt again. The OVO boss did this just over a week ago to tease his next album, ICEMAN, which appears to be releasing on May 15.

He's been busy promoting it, building a giant ice installation in Toronto late last weekend, for example. So, it's not too much of a surprise that he didn't make an appearance. While he loves his hometown NBA team, he's got big things in store.

But the Raptors didn't need Drake to win their matchup against the Cleveland Cavaliers. They were able to ride strong performances from Scottie Barnes and RJ Barrett, as well as the energy from the raucous crowd.

They played like a desperate team, and they were rewarded with a blowout win to extend their series for at least one more game. Toronto would put up 126 points to Cleveland's 104, making it the largest margin of victory in this best-of-seven series so far.

With this much-needed win in hand, the five-seeded Raptors are down 1-2. Game 4 will take place at Scotiabank Arena once more on Sunday, April 26.

The Current 2025-2026 NBA Playoff Picture

You can catch that game at 1:00 ET on ESPN.

There were two other playoff games last night as well. The six-seeded Atlanta Hawks hosted the three-seeded New York Knicks. This matchup has been great to watch, and again, it came down to the last handful of possessions.

CJ McCollum spoiled the Knicks hopes again, this time hitting a go-ahead jumper with 12 seconds left. The Hawks would get a stop on defense, giving them a fairly surprising 2-1 series lead.

Ending the night of playoff action yesterday was a dominant win by the six-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves on the Western Conference side of the bracket. They put on an impressive defensive display against the three-seeded Denver Nuggets.

Minnesota was able to hold Nikola Jokic to a shockingly inefficient 7-26 from the floor (2-10 from three). They are up 2-1 in their series as well. Game 4 for them will be tomorrow at 8:30 ET on ABC.

As far as the rest of 2025-2026 playoff picture, the (#1) Pistons and (#8) Magic are tied 1-1. The (#2) Celtics are knotted up at one with the (#7) Sixers. Out west, the top-seeded Thunder have a commanding 2-0 lead over the Suns. The Spurs and Trail Blazers are even with Victor Wembanyama potentially out for tonight's Game 3 with a concussion. Lastly, the Lakers are up 2-0 on the (#4) Houston Rockets.

About The Author
Zachary Horvath is one of the Music Freelance News Writers at HotNewHipHop and has held that title since August 2023. Prior to this position, he held another freelance gig covering local high school football, girls and boys varsity basketball, in addition to recapping Cleveland Cavaliers games remotely. He's taken the previous experience and used it to become a jack of all trades at HotNewHipHop. Zach has thoroughly enjoyed tackling some of the trending topics in sports, with a larger focus on hip-hop and pop culture. Some of those include Bronny James's draft stock, a multitude of angles swirling around the Drake and Kendrick Lamar beef, as well as Diddy's arrest and lawsuits. Separate from the headlines that everyone wants to hear about, he was fortunate enough to help spread Zaytoven's current thoughts at the time around mid-December in 2023. Even though being able to give his expertise on these stories is fulfilling, being able to share his passion for releases trumps that ever so slightly. Having the chance to express his excitement indirectly about what he thinks our readers should be checking out/revisiting grows his passion for writing that much more.

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