LeBron James beats himself up over free throws
May 20, 2016C-Cap Recap: Big Papi’s Place in Tribe-Killer History
May 23, 2016Cleveland Cavaliers 84
Toronto Raptors 99
[Box Score]
For the first time in the 2016 NBA Playoffs, the Cleveland Cavaliers have lost a game, dropping Game 3 in Toronto to the Raptors. Winning 10 consecutive games is really hard to do in the regular season. Winning 10 in a row in the postseason when you are playing the same team over and over is a remarkable accomplishment and one worth taking a minute to remember and appreciate.
The Cavaliers were bound to lose one eventually, though. They weren’t going to sweep their way to the NBA Championship. But after winning the first two games by such wide margins, it makes sense that so many felt the Cavaliers would sweep their way through Toronto at least. And based on the way the Cavaliers played in Game 3, they apparently thought the Raptors felt this way as well.
But Toronto did not oblige. The Raptors showed up determined to get back into the series. DeMar DeRozan was a monster on offense and Bismack Biyombo dominated the Cavaliers in the paint. Meanwhile Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love were nothing short of abysmal in Game 3. All of this added up to a Toronto win and now we finally have ourselves a series.
What does this loss mean in the big picture? It’s hard to say, but it shouldn’t mean much. The Cavaliers played so poorly on offense and got so overwhelmingly outworked on the glass and in fights for loose balls. Toronto played a really, really good game. And yet the Cavaliers still had plenty of chances to make it a game in the fourth quarter. Can the Raptors continue to play this well and can the Cavaliers continue to play this poorly over the rest of the series?
I suppose we’ll find out soon enough. How one feels about this series really depends on how one feels about the way the Cavaliers’ offense fell apart. The Cavaliers missed a lot of shots they had been making, no doubt. But they also stopped playing the loose, free flowing game they had shown so far in the postseason. The ball stuck too much, and the passes weren’t the kind to setup a play, but more the kind to try to bail out an offensive player who had gotten themselves in a bad spot. A lot of credit goes to the Toronto defense, but the Cavaliers also need to ask themselves why the offense broke down in the manner in which it did.
One loss doesn’t overwrite ten wins, but now the Cavaliers finally are facing something resembling adversity. Honestly, this just feels weird. In a normal postseason, losses are just part of the package. You feel the ebb and flow of a series. But now this loss feels like hard questions need to be answered about what happened. That’s the test for the Cavaliers. Can they forget about this loss and move on? There’s no reason the Cavalier shouldn’t still close out this series without much trouble.
Now lets get into the numbers.
- 0 – Kevin Love’s jersey number as well the number of points he scored in the first half. Love finished the game with 3 points on 1 of 9 shooting along with 4 rebounds. Love had been enjoying a phenomenal postseason up to this point, but this game was an absolute nightmare. The Raptors abused Love in the paint and Biyombo took every rebound, leaving nothing for Love and Tristan Thompson. It’s always frustrating when Love struggles, but it will be interesting to see how Love comes back from this one. It will say a lot about what kind of series this is going to be.
- 3 of 19 – Kyrie Irving wasn’t any better than Love in this game. Kyrie shot 3 of 19 from the field including just 1 of 7 from three-point range (despite most being pretty decent looks) for 13 points and one assist. The Cavaliers’ leading scorer in this postseason, Kyrie looked incredibly uncomfortable all game long. He seemed to get frustrated early and began to press and force the issue, forgetting about his teammates. I know much is said about how Cavaliers coach Ty Lue stays on Kyrie to be aggressive and not back down, but it felt in this one like Kyrie needed to slow down a bit and try to get his teammates going instead. The Cavaliers have had so much success this year because when one player is off, another player steps up. But tonight Love and Kyrie both were pretty bad and the Cavaliers just can’t overcome both players have this kind of game.
- 7-26-4 – Bismack Biyombo had one of the best games I’ve ever seen on grit and hustle basis. He finished with 7 points, 26 rebounds, and 4 blocks. At one point Biyombo had a 0-20-4 line going, which was one of the more absurd things I’d ever seen. That was before it got even more absurd Biyombo himself went on a 6-0 run. Biyombo wanted this game, and he was incredible in it. The Cavaliers just could not keep him off the board and his presence in the paint disrupted Cleveland’s offense all game long.
- 52 – I have felt that for the Raptors to have any chance to win this series, they were going to need at least 55 to 60 points from Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan. They came close in this game. Lowry had a solid bounceback game with 20 points thanks to a 4 for 8 performance from three. But it was DeRozan who really made an imprint in this one with 32 points to lead all scorers. DeRozan was absolutely sensational in this game. No matter what the Cavaliers tried on defense, they couldn’t seem to prevent DeRozan from finding a shot he liked. Eventually the Cavaliers resorted to putting LeBron on him and then bringing over extra help on a hard double team, which led to Biyombo being all alone under the rim for easy baskets.
- 84 – The Cavaliers had scored 100 or more points in every playoff game thus far this postseason. In their first loss of the playoffs, the Cavaliers only managed 84 points. Again, if there’s any big takeaway from this game, it was the self destruction of the offense for Cleveland. The Cavaliers were averaging 23.7 assists in the playoffs, but had just 15 in this game, their lowest assist outcome of the playoffs. The lowest they had shot from the field up to this point was 41.9%. In Game 3 against Toronto, the Cavaliers shot just 35.4%. LeBron was able to fight his way for 24 points, but he also settled for a lot of bad shots. LeBron attempted just 3 shots from three-point range in the previous two games against the Raptors, but he took 5 in this one, making just one. JR Smith and Channing Frye were able to knock down some big shots. But overall, it was just a miserable offensive game all around. Did the Raptors find something on defense that works, or was this just an off night? That’s what the rest of the series will answer.
One game is not a trend, but two games can be. So Game 4 will be an enormous game. If the Raptors shut down the Cavaliers offense like this again, then suddenly the Cavaliers will be going back to Cleveland feeling a lot of pressure and searching for answers. But if the Cavaliers bounce back and take care of business, then Game 5 will be a chance to secure another Conference Championship at home. Either way, for the first time in these playoffs, the Cavaliers have to respond to a loss. They’ll get that chance on Monday in Toronto.
11 Comments
Not worried, since I had tagged either Game 1 or 3 as the potential problem. Toronto played nearly perfectly in their desperation, despite some really bad refereeing that could have messed with their heads. And the Cavs missed a ton of easy shots, which was bound to happen. A few things did bother me:
– Kevin Love being completely passive. Absent were the attempts to draw fouls when his man was up on him, or scrumming for loose balls, or boxing out. He doesn’t yet get his responsibility for consistent intensity, but he’ll get there when his teammates pile on in the film session.
– Kyrie: almost the same as Love, but Cory Joseph played him like the Tazmanian Devil, plus hit his own shots. Guy had a career night – looked like the Delly of ’14 defensively so let’s tip our hats and move on.
Kyrie will be fine. The Cavs will be fine. Every good team has a clunker that wakes them up. What the Raptors did is probably not repeatable against better intensity.
FIRE LUE!!!
still left with the feel that a lot of early shots thatd usually go down, rattled out. particularly for kyrie at the rim. i think delly had a couple of those too and of course one never knows how a little momentum could build. 35% from field could be called equal parts better defense and bad luck,, but i thought cavs got their looks and just didnt get normal conversion rates. but to be fair, raps had 3rd best ppg defense in reg season so good on them for ramping their intensity.
there was a structural diversion from the 10-straight-win game plan that i hope gets staunched: default-lebron offense. it’s been pretty great to see the heat charts with all of lebrons points coming in the paint; and on the other hand he’s 3-18 from 3 since game 2 vs atl. i understand that when no one is hot, lebron wants to take over the ball,,, but that’s where lue needs to keep every one bought-in to the plan. didn’t happen last night, hopefully lue was teaching a lesson to the about the team plan’s efficacy and the perils of dumping it.
Irving and Love were as bad as I’ve seen them in probably two months. Lue should have benched Love before the fourth quarter ever started in favor of Frye. But the players and coaches both had bad nights. 26 rebounds by Biyombo not to mention his complete physical dominance was unacceptable. I hope TT is as pissed as he says he was because he should be after game 3.
I had Cavs in 5. I’m on course but would like to see the real Cavaliers show up Monday night.
Irving should have been next to Love on the bench. Between him and LeBron I don’t know who stops the offense more.
“my room mate Mary Is getting paid on the internet $98/hr”…..!kj175ytwo days ago grey MacLaren. P1 I bought after earning 18,512 Dollars..it was my previous month’s payout..just a little over.17k Dollars Last month..3-5 hours job a day…with weekly payouts..it’s realy the simplest. job I have ever Do.. I Joined This 7 months. ago. and now making over hourly. 87 Dollars…Learn. More right Here !kj175y:➽:➽:.➽.➽.➽.➽ http://GlobalSuperJobsReportsEmploymentsProfitableGetPay-Hour$98…. .★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★::::::!kj175y….,……
After watching the beat down last night in OKC, it now feels more like the Cavs merely lost.
I was going to make this comment as well. It wasn’t a good game, but it wasn’t a beat down.
If I’m glass-half-full (and I am, still), my take-away is this:
As bad as the Cavs looked (with credit to Toronto’s defense, of course) from start to finish, they still had it down to a five point deficit in the third quarter. Toronto made EVERYTHING from three (so *that’s* what it feels like when a team does it to *you*), and the Cavs certainly did not appear to have the hustle and urgency we’ve seen throughout much of the playoffs. Toronto clearly knew they were playing for their playoff lives; they showed it.
Two things, intertwined, going forward: if that wasn’t a wake up call for the Cavs’ effort level, and Game 4 follows the same result, then I might start to change my tune. I hope/expect to see a refocused and energized Cavs team come out in Game 4 and put the screws to Toronto on defense early and often. Force them into the bad shots we saw them clank repeatedly in Games 1 and 2.
To that end, Toronto expended a LOT of energy on defense Saturday night. Home crowd can give you that lift. But, are they deep enough to play with that intensity for four to five straight games without sacrificing offense and/or wearing down? I don’t think so. The Cavs are clearly the deeper team top to bottom (to take nothing away from the Raps’ starting backcourt et al), and I think an energy-sapping series favors the Cavs.
One thing on Love’s “aggressiveness”: I hate when he head-fakes a 3 and then tries to throw his body into the defender to get a foul. I feel like he’s done this a lot recently and I’ve only seen it work once in the playoffs. Stop trying to get a foul and make a damn basket.
ITS TEH END!