When the Basketball Gods died in Cleveland

The possibility of winning the series seemed real in the first quarter, but the Raptors were brought down to earth when the Cavs showed why they’re the most expensive team in the NBA.

They ended the first quarter on a 9-0 run, which included beautiful ball movement initiated by Donovan Mitchell and ending with a James Harden triple. Max Strus sprayed the ball out to the corner, and Jaylon Tyson banged the triple. The Raptors were lucky Mitchell missed the 3 right before the halftime buzzer. 

Most people never expected the Raptors to take the Cavs to Game 7, and nobody expected the latter to win the series.

Though the Basketball Gods tapped RJ Barrett’s moonshot into the hoop at Scotiabank Arena, they weren’t home as the Raptors screamed to the heavens during the third quarter of Game 7. 

Only the law of averages and ice-cold rationality (math!) started back at Barrett, Jamal Shead, Scottie Barnes, and the rest of the team. Kenny Atkinson’s data-driven decisions were proven right.

In the third, Barrett consistently willed himself inside, but shot 1-for-5 in the paint, and missed all three shots inside the restricted area. The rim has a lid on it, sometimes, and when the Raptors struggled, it was sealed extra tight, especially when Scottie sat on the bench.

Another inconvenient truth struck — that a depleted roster couldn’t avoid being out of foul trouble. Barnes picked up his fourth foul before the halfway mark of the third quarter. His team was down six points in the most important game of the season, but was left to fend for themselves with Shead, Ja’Kobe Walter, Jamison Battle, Barrett, and CMB on the floor. 

It was go-time. Barrett touched the paint, and Walter hit a big 3 to make it a five-point game. But the fickle finger of fate inside Rocket Arena was just as cold as the hand that shipped its city’s manufacturing jobs overseas.

Reality doesn’t discriminate. It didn’t care that the Raptors evened the series in Toronto, and were two quarters away from pulling off the post-season’s biggest upset.

The Raptors had back-to-back turnovers in the open court, and briefly looked like a high school team. Star J threw an errant pass that got stolen by Harden and Jarrett Allen mugged CMB, which which kickstarted the latter’s dominant 22-point, 19-rebound (eight offensive boards) finish. He only had six points and five rebounds at halftime.

The Raptors’ momentum dissipated with the snap of a finger. Allen attacked from the perimeter, put the ball on the deck, and scored over CMB to push the lead back up to 10. 

Reality was finally catching up with the fantasy of a storybook ending. The Cavs kept letting Shead shoot throughout the series, and it paid off in the third frame as the Cavs put their stamp on the series. Shead missed an open look in the paint and a I’m-by-myself-in-an-empty-gym 3.

Another reality caught up with the Raps: Barnes is not a point guard, though he might be a great playmaker. He got mugged by Strus in the open court as he attempted a spin move, making Allen look like the Jordan logo for a split second. 15-point lead for the Cavs. The Basketball Gods were dead. 

At the end of third, Scottie picked up his fifth foul and put Allen at the free throw line. However, the latter grabbed his own miss, and Tyson helped the Cavs keep possession, even after a CMB block on Allen. Mitchell found Strus in the corner, and the latter turned Magneto inside out. This encapsulated the sheer imbalance between the two teams, why Cleveland’s bigs were so feared, and why money coupled with rationality can buy Ws.

There’s an appealing part about basketball existentialism. When basketball heaven is as hollow as the manufacturing industry in the Rust Belt, players find out who they exactly are. They are forced to stand on their own two feet. he Raptors found out exactly who they are in this series and that they’re powerful beyond measure. They can compete in the East even with this current iteration, and that gives bountiful hope for the near future. 

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