CLEVELAND — There was a thought making the rounds before Game 5 on Wednesday that might have seemed radical in some corners before the first-round series between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Toronto Raptors:
What if the Toronto Raptors are just the better team?
No one thought so before the series began. Oddsmakers in Las Vegas certainly didn’t. They had the Cavaliers at +900 to win the series — to win $100, you had to bet $900, an implied probability of 90 per cent. I picked Cavs in six but could have had my arm twisted to pick them in five.
But through the first four games, with three total points separating the two teams (and the Raptors +3), the Cavaliers certainly didn’t seem like the favourites anymore. The Raptors’ success against Cleveland — they were 3-0 against Cleveland in the regular season and had bumped their overall record to 5-2 after their win in Game 4 on Sunday — was starting to seem less like a bug and more like a feature.
Scottie Barnes had shown himself to be the best player in the series, and you could make a strong argument that the next best was RJ Barrett, as the Raptors have harnessed James Harden and Donovan Mitchell effectively since Games 1 and 2. And while Cavs 24-year-old big man Evan Mobley has a defensive player of the year trophy on his shelf and is in the first year of a five-year contract that will pay him $269 million, would the Raptors trade Collin Murray-Boyles for him, straight up? Would anyone?
Not after the first four games.
But to actually prove themselves the better team, their task was simple: win the best-of-three series that started Wednesday night in Game 5.
Unfortunately for the Raptors, that task has gotten significantly more difficult. Not only because Toronto lost 125-120 to fall behind 3-2 in the series, making Game 6 on Friday night at Scotiabank Arena a potential elimination game, but because they likely won’t have an ideal lineup for what could be their final game of the season.
Brandon Ingram has struggled mightily this series, but the Raptors would still love to have him available for Game 6, something that is in question after he left Game 5 after just 11:22 of floor time due to inflammation in his right heel, an issue that bothered him towards the end of the regular season.
Never was he more missed than in the fourth quarter against Cleveland as the Raptors’ offence got stuck in the mud, a situation Ingram’s shot-making has proven handy in solving multiple times this season.
“The way they guard him, his shot-making ability. When he’s out there on the floor, he makes big plays for us,” said Barnes. “We need him out there.”
Worse still, Barnes may not be at full strength. He collided with Cavs centre Thomas Bryant on a drive in the second quarter and bruised his thigh. Barnes was still able to play 39 minutes, but it’s perhaps telling that in a crucial game where he had 17 points, eight rebounds, 11 assists, three blocked shots and a steal, his output for 20 second-half minutes was just three points and three assists as he went 0-of-6 from the floor. In a related matter, the Raptors’ first-half lead evaporated.
“Obviously it had some effect,” said Barnes, who was limping noticeably after the game. “[I] couldn’t play with that same pace that I was trying to play with, just having a little limp out there, but, you know, I was just trying to push through it, trying to win the game … just gotta get some recovery, let it rest a little bit, be ready for Friday.”
At this point, we can mention that this is a Raptors team that has been without their starting point guard, Immanuel Quickley, for the entire series due to a hamstring strain. They’ve weathered that and they’ve managed even with Ingram playing below his expected level, but Barnes at half pace might be too much for Toronto to overcome.
In the first half, he showed why. He was the everywhere monster who had established himself as the best player in the series in his first 19 minutes.
It was a commanding performance, on command.
“We have to punch first,” was the wish of one Raptors staffer I spoke with pregame, and that wish was granted. Boom: there was Jakob Poeltl (14 points, nine rebounds) with an uncharacteristically authoritative dunk off a pick-and-roll action with Barrett. Boom: a pair of early threes by Barrett and Ja’Kobe Walter.
The Raptors didn’t just land the first punch; they landed flurries of them. They led 22-10 with 6:36 left in the first quarter. The Cavaliers rallied. Their highly decorated backcourt of Harden and Mitchell seemed determined to treat the game with the significance it deserved, given the earthquake that would surely be triggered if all their ‘win-now’ efforts and league-leading payroll had them losing to the Raptors in the first round. A 12-2 run evened the score, and threes by Harden and Mitchell in the final minute of the quarter — Mitchell’s from 35 feet — gave the Cavs a 38-34 lead at the end of 12 minutes.
But Barnes took over in the second quarter, pushing the pace, spraying the ball, helping cause havoc defensively. He had help: Walter caught fire and finished the first half with 17 points, knocking down five of eight threes on his way to the first 20-point game of his playoff career. Jamal Shead was playing his best basketball of the series on his way to 18 points, seven assists and two steals. And Barrett, shouldering the scoring load left over from Ingram as he has all series, scored 11 of his game-high 25 points (along with 12 rebounds and five assists) in the period. The Raptors led 75-67 at half. There was a smattering of boos raining down from the crowd at Rocket Arena, who have expectations of the Cavaliers as a team that should reach the Eastern Conference Finals at least. Falling behind 3-2 to the Raptors was not on the menu.
“I think we should be encouraged with all that happening and we were still in position to win the game,” said Barrett. “That’s a testament to everybody on our team. We’ve always had a next-man-up mentality. Obviously we love those guys and need those guys. Whatever the situation may be, we’re gonna go out there, we’re gonna play together, we’re gonna fight and give it everything we have.”
But the momentum shifted in the third quarter, with Barnes suddenly unable to impose his will on the game, the Raptors’ grip on it loosened and it slid from their fingers ever so slowly in the fourth. The Raptors were standing still offensively, unable to force the Cavaliers’ defence to shift, move or collapse. The result was a lot of contested shots over the top of defenders late in the shot clock, which is how a team shoots 7-of-28 and 2-of-12 down the stretch after shooting 55 per cent from the floor and 50 per cent from three in the first three quarters. Meanwhile, the swarming defence that had generated 23 points off turnovers in the first half could manage only five points off Cavs mistakes in the second.
All the while, former Raptor Dennis Schröder was shaking free for 11 of his 19 points off the bench and Mobley — a non-factor in two games in Toronto — rebounded, hitting a pair of fourth-quarter threes on his way to 23 points and nine rebounds.
The Raptors still had a breath of hope after a pair of stops and runouts leading to late baskets by Collin Murray-Boyles (eight points, five rebounds), which helped cut an eight-point Cavs lead in the final minute to four, but it was more a death rattle than a rally.
But the Raptors remain resolute. The way they played against the Cavs from the second half of Game to through the first half of Game 5 solidified their belief that they deserve to be the team that emerges from the series.
But who will be able — and available — to try and force a Game 7 is the wild card.
“I mean, we’ll have to see where we are [Thursday],” said Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic. “It’s 48 hours until the next game. We have 48 hours to find a physical and to find a mental way. Our back is against the wall. It’s Game 6. They’re going to try to close the series and we’re going to do everything possible [to stop them]. First of all, we have to find enough healthy guys to go out there and then to compete to the last second.”
Uh, it has not been the playoff series Ingram or anyone else was envisioning after leading the Raptors in scoring this season (21.5 per game) and returning to the all-star game for the first time in six years, setting career marks for minutes played, total points scored and playing in the most games (77) since his rookie year. Through the first four games, he was a non-factor, offensively, averaging 14.8 points on 33.9 per cent shooting against a Cavs team loaded up to make his looks difficult. And then he left Game 5 early in the second quarter with right heel inflammation, a problem that had kept him out of three games in final weeks of the regular season. Ingram played a typical 10 minutes in the first quarter, went to the locker room to have his foot re-taped but pulled himself after just over a minute of action in the second quarter. He scored just one point and was 0/2 from the floor but he had a couple of assists and was moving the ball well. He’ll be re-evaluated in Toronto on Thursday.
The second-year wing had been one of the best three-point shooters in the NBA since the all-star break, converting 47.6 per cent of his chances, second-best among those with at least 100 makes. But through the first four games of his playoff career, the story was different, as he came into Game 5 shooting just 4-of-22 from deep and going 0-of-11 in two games in Toronto. But he was unbothered before the game. “They’re closing out harder, trying to run me off the line, just making the shots tougher,” he said. “Toward the end of the year, I started seeing those types of closeouts … but [the Cavs] are definitely not trying to let me get open or stay open. But even when I have those open shots, I’m still trying to knock those down.” And then he went out and did it, hitting five threes in the first half before cooling down and making just 1-of-6 tries in the second half.
The series has had some testy moments, which makes sense given the stakes and the level of physical play. Harden and Barrett have butted heads more than once. They were at it again late in the fourth quarter when Harden was making his presence felt in front of the Raptors bench. “The ball was by our bench. He walked by our bench to go pick up the ball. I take everything as disrespect. Don’t walk over to our bench and pick the ball up,” said Barrett. “James Harden is a guy I have tremendous respect for. I always have. I’ve always watched him growing up. But who cares right now? Don’t walk to our bench and grab the ball. If I went to the bench and grabbed the ball in front of their bench, I’d expect the same thing.” The referees reviewed the incident, but nothing came of it.
