Raptors dominated by Cavs in Game 1

The Raptors came into the second half, down seven points.

The Cavs immediately got off to a game-shifting 6-0 start, forcing Darko Rajakovic to take a timeout. 

Down 13, Evan Mobley twisted the dagger inside the Raptors by hitting a triple to cap off a 9-0 run. The Cavs led by 16. 

For nearly two full possessions, Barnes and Mobley had the effect of nullifying each other. Mobley made Barnes miss a contested pull-up jumper in the paint, and Barnes walled up Mobley and forced a pass out to Jarrett Allen. But Jakob Poeltl’s reaction was a little too slow, and Allen scored easily inside. To say the least, Yak wasn’t the utility van the Raps needed last night.

Then, the Raptors turned the ball over, and RJ’s horrendous POA attack defence allowed Donovan Mitchell to waltz into the paint. Poeltl came to help, leaving the defensive glass wide open for an easy bucket by Dean Wade who finished the game with a 46.7 net rating. 

Mitchell and James Harden combined for 54 points and were a huge problem for the Raptors. And though Barrett allowed lane penetration like the instance above, got crossed twice by Spida, and allowed easy lobs to Allen and Mobley due to poor defensive screen navigation in two possessions, I think he played better defence on Harden than he’s been given credit for. His relentless drives to the basket in the third quarter gave the Raptors life when they had none.

The Cavs kept daring non-3-point shooters like Scottie and Jamal Shead to shoot. Scottie missed his only 3 (he went 3-for-4 from downtown) after Mobley scored on him in the post, and tried a tit-for-tat. The game hit another lowpoint when back-to-back Max Strus 3s were sandwiched by CMB turning the ball over in an attempt to get Ingram the ball. Ingram was nowhere to be found when the game mattered more. He hit a bunch of contested middys in the first half, but disappeared after halftime.

Mitchell was a dagger at the end of quarters – he threw an alley-oop to pass to Strus to beat the buzzer at the end of the first quarter. At the end of the third, he hit a 3 over BI’s outstretched hands, and drew a 3-point shooting foul on Mamu before going into the final12 minutes.

Game 1 was done in by the third quarter.

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