On Sunday afternoon, the Cleveland Cavs had a golden opportunity to go up 3-1 in their first round playoff series against the Toronto Raptors on the road. Instead, the Cavs squandered a late lead in what was an ugly offensive showing for both teams, with the Raptors emerging as 93-89 victors.
The Cavs were in control of this game for most of the way, and took an eight-point lead with around five minutes to go. However, things would crater from there, with Donovan Mitchell and James Harden both bricking jumpers down the stretch, and the team also committing several puzzling turnovers, including an eight-second violation.
Mitchell suffered through an abysmal shooting night, finishing just 6-24 from beyond the three point line. Meanwhile, Harden had a second straight game of recording more turnovers than field goals made, shooting 6-14 from the field and giving the ball to the Raptors seven times.
This is now a best of five series. The good news for the Cavs is that they still have home court advantage, but this loss guaranteed that they’ll be coming back to Toronto later this week for a Game 6.
Moving forward, the Cavs will need to get back to the ball movement and offensive precision they had in the first two games of this series at home. They’ll also hope for some better production out of Evan Mobley, who finished Sunday’s game with just eight points on 4-11 from the field, and will also need Mitchell to bounce back in a big way.
Game 5 is set for Wednesday evening back in Cleveland.