Can Scottie Barnes & Brandon Ingram lead the Raptors back against the Cavs?

Samson Folk & Louis Zatzman detail the latest for the Raptors.

From Louis’ piece:

“Toronto’s bone-headed turnovers hurt. Ingram’s complete absence from the game hurt worse. But Harden and Mitchell’s peerless excellence hurt most. 

Facing a talent deficit, a shooting deficit, a size deficit, an experience deficit, the Raptors have virtually no margin for error against the Cavaliers. By and large, the Raptors played well enough to steal a game on the road. But a variety of factors doomed a real effort from Toronto. It wasn’t a perfect game, not even close. But Toronto threw a solid punch. Cleveland took in on the jaw without any issue. Toronto needs to be perfect, it appears. 

The Raptors could bounce back and win a game. Perhaps Mitchell and Harden aren’t so impossibly efficient on impossibly difficult shots. Perhaps Ingram remembers how to play basketball. But it is virtually impossible to win playoff series against already superior teams when such performances still end up in losses due to self-sabotage.”

From Samson’s piece:

“The Raptors defense reached a much better level. It started with CMB, I think, but the level of compete-contain-compete-contain they had throughout possessions went up by an order of magnitude. They switched more often, blitzed more often, and stayed connected as a 5-man unit. Linked not by rope, but by shared, common ideals of defense. The Cavs role players were less effective with the added pressure.

The shot quality compared to game 1 was far worse, but unfortunately for the Raptors, both Harden & Mitchell are top class difficult shot makers and were putting on a show. The arena damn near erupted when Harden dropped Barnes with a cross and banged a step back triple. The possession prior he hit a heavily contested, doubled triple as the shot clock expired. Pure wizardry. Still though, the Raptors were only down 7. Barrett was imperfect, but indomitable in spirit. Murray-Boyles was unbelievable for a rookie. Barnes carried over some of the jump shooting from Game 1, but the Raptors were still waiting on some dominance.

In the end though, the Raptors didn’t have enough juice. Even when they could grind and work their way to a bucket, real manufacturing, laborious and triumphant, but paling in comparison to what the Cavaliers could do. It was, of course, trading 2’s for 3’s, but in some cases trading nothing for something.

The Raptors scraped and clawed, with rookies, with young guns, without their big starting center, and with their hot shot scorer putting up a 2-14 performance. They came up empty.

On to Game 3 and the cozy confines of Scotiabank Arena.”

Have a blessed day.

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