The Toronto Raptors had them just where they wanted them. Their house. Their winning streak.
On paper through the first quarter of the NBA season, the Raptors were the better team.
When LeBron James and his Cleveland Cavaliers come to town it’s always a big deal, but for perhaps the first time against a team featuring James the most pressing question wasn’t how the Raptors were going to survive, but how were the champs going to handle the Raptors?
Well, as has been the case in five straight games going back to the final two of the Eastern Conference Finals matchup and three early season contests so far, Cleveland managed just fine as they pulled away in the second half for a 116-112 win that was easier than the score suggested.
It ended the Raptors’ (14-7) six-game winning streak and dropped Toronto a game behind Cleveland (14-5) for the first place in the Eastern Conference. It also meant that Toronto has lost the season series to Cleveland, the first tiebreaker in any playoff-seeding scenario.
But mostly it means as far as the Raptors have come, they still have a ways to go before James and the Cavs will need to respect them as equals.
"They won a championship last year," said Raptors point guard Kyle Lowry. "They beat us three times so far this year and they have our number right now, but we have a long way to go and a lot more regular season games to go … we take this game as a lesson."
For the first half and a few frantic moments of the fourth quarter, Toronto looked like they had at least a shot to serve up what would have been as close to a signature win as you can manage in early December.
After trailing by 13 late in the third quarter, the Raptors pulled within five after Terrence Ross and Patrick Patterson hit a pair of threes with nine minutes to play in the fourth. But James wasn’t having it. He assisted on a Channing Frye triple and scored nine of the Cavs’ next 12 points on his way to a season-high 34.
"The game was flowing very well for me, my shot was feeling really well,” he said. "Just a by-product of me reading the game and being able to make some plays and help our team win."
And it mattered a little more that it was in Toronto. James was engaged all game, making clear that this was not the night the Raptors were going to come of age or gain any shred of psychological advantage.
"It’s always a tough place to play," said James, who added eight rebounds and seven assists. "Their fans are incredible and their team is very good and well coached. It’s always tough to get a win in here and for us to do that twice already (this year) it’s big for our team."
It’s a compliment of sorts, that basketball’s most dominant player has games in Toronto circled on his calendar. But it’s a problem too.
"I guess it’s a thank you," said Lowry. "But you’ve got our attention too."
The Cavs ended Toronto’s streak and halted the their own losing streak at three, but more importantly they proved a point that hardly needs making: as good as the Raptors have been lately, there is a distance they have yet to travel if they are going to catch Cleveland with James in the lineup.
"We’ve got to play a perfect game to beat a team like that," said Raptors head coach Dwane Casey. "Whether it’s mental breakdowns or whatever … All those little things matter in the flow of a game. We’re a growing team but to beat a team like this it has to be close to 95 per cent, 94 per cent."
Monday night promised to be a little different, at least based on recent form. You could make the case the red-hot Raptors were the favourites over the Cavaliers.
But the Cavs, underdogs? Really?
“We’re never the underdogs, no," said Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue before the game. "We lost a couple games. So what? We’re not the underdogs, though.”
The Cavaliers confidence is well earned and championship tested. The Raptors pushed it to the wire. A Kyrie Irving turnover with 22 seconds left gave Toronto the ball down five. A DeRozan triple with 10 seconds appeared to cut the lead to two, but a replay review showed he’d stepped out of bounds on the shot and that was it.
In the end, the Raptors didn’t have quite enough answers. As much as Toronto relies on Lowry and DeRozan to carry them at times, they are at their best when they are getting something from everybody — they had at least six players in double figures in every game of their winning streak.
Lowry had 24 points and nine assists and DeRozan had 31 and five helpers, but the rest of the starters combined for 18 points and the bench couldn’t quite compensate.
The Cavs were on to them. They spent the weekend in Toronto after playing in Chicago on Friday night and it sounds like they were doing some homework.
“It starts with their two-headed monster, DeRozan and Lowry," said James. "Their complimentary guys have been playing great. Their role players have been playing great. DeMarre and Patrick, Terrence Ross coming in and giving them big minutes, obviously Cory Joseph being a solid backup point guard for them as well. Even some of the younger guys, they’ve been coming into the game, have come in and played some good ball. We’ve got our hands full tonight in a hostile environment."
DeRozan and Lowry were as advertised but missing in action were Jonas Valanciunas (four points on eight shots) and to a lesser extend DeMarre Carroll (eight points on 10 shots and 1-of-6 from three).
The Raptors had James’ attention and complimented them by scoring nine of his 34 in the fourth quarter. Kevin Love chipped in with 28 while Kyrie Irving had 24 in the kind of ‘Big Three’ outing that makes Cleveland very hard to beat when they’re locked in.
After losing to the Bulls on Friday, James had called out his team for letting their championship hangover linger through the first quarter of the season. "The honeymoon is over," he said.
He was here for business. To prove the point he sprinted the floor to finish a spectacular alley-oop that gave Cleveland a 6-0 lead before the game was two minutes old. He appeared to strain something on the play, dropping to a knee as Lowry hit a three going the other way, but James stayed in the game.
One might think that two teams with something to prove would do so on the defensive end, but it was offence first early on. The Cavaliers shot a blistering 65 per cent in the first quarter while the Raptors converted just 43.5 per cent as they trailed 30-27.
But Toronto did heat up a little bit in the second quarter, sparked in some measure by backup centre Lucas Nogueira who chipped in with four points, a block and a steal but stymied James on a couple of switches and seemed to energize Toronto. The Raptors opened up a five-point lead midway through the quarter after a triple by Patterson.
But James had no intention of the hole getting any deeper. He scored the Cavaliers’ next three field goals to reel the Raptors in. Toronto had a chance to take a lead heading into the half but Patterson missed a bunny at the buzzer and Cleveland led 62-61 after 24 minutes. James had 16 and got plenty help from Love, who had 20, while Lowry and DeRozan racked up 16 and 12, respectively.
Normally an early December game doesn’t carry much weight but given that the two teams don’t meet again until the last game of the regular season and head-to-head record is the first tiebreaker, it wasn’t a stretch to say it did matter.
One odds maker had the Raptors as 1.5-point favourites although the consensus had Toronto as slight underdogs, according to Oddshark.com.
For good reason.
Over the course of their winning streak the Raptors were the No. 1-ranked offensive team in the NBA, averaging 123.7 points per 100 possessions and the third-best defensive team with a rating of 97.5 points/100.
The Cavaliers? They were still scoring well, even though they were 3-3 in their past six heading into Monday’s action, but they were only averaging 111.7 points per 100 and defensively were struggling — allowing 111.4/100 which puts them 26th.
But it’s not just short-term thing. On the season the Raptors are just behind the mighty Golden State Warriors in offensive rating — 114.8 to 113.8/100 — both numbers well ahead of the 112.5/100 the Warriors put up in their record 73-win season a year ago — while Cleveland comes in at 109.6 way back in fourth.
Did the Raptors recent run get the Cavaliers attention?
"Nah. They’ve had our attention," said James. "They’ve had our attention for the last couple years. I think they’ve had the NBA’s attention. You don’t need them playing well and us not playing well or us playing well and them not playing well for them to get our attention. I think it’s there.”
And then he went out and proved it.
