On Sunday afternoon, the Cleveland Cavs dropped to 2-2 in their first round playoff series against the Toronto Raptors with a disappointing Game 4 loss on the road. This game was an ugly defensive battle throughout, with the Raptors ultimately emerging with a 93-89 win after the Cavs went ice cold on offense late in the game.
Virtually no one had a good day on offense for the Cavs, including their starting frontcourt of Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen, as highlighted by a stark stat pointed out by NBACentral on X, formerly Twitter.
Donovan Mitchell also suffered through a brutal shooting day for Cleveland, shooting just 6/24 from the field, while James Harden had more turnovers than points for the second straight game.
The Cavs are now in a dogfight against a team that many expected them to either sweep or gentleman’s sweep, and that’s without the Raptors having their starting point guard, Immanuel Quickley, in the lineup thus far in the series.
Moving forward, the Cavs will need to get back to the ball and player movement that helped them earn comfortable wins in Game 1 and Game 2 at home, and just being back on their own floor should help give them a boost of confidence and, of course, crowd support.
Concerns about the Cavs’ crunch time offense were certainly not quelled by the team’s Game 4 performance, as Cleveland committed several puzzling errors down the stretch of the game, including an eight-second violation from Mitchell, who was evidently not expecting the Raptors’ defense to pressure him as he brought the ball up the court.
The Cavs will also need to get more out of both Mobley and Allen if they want to make it to the second round.
In any case, the pivotal Game 5 of this series is set for Wednesday evening back in Cleveland.