Cleveland Cavaliers guard Max Strus is known as a shooter, but he drew attention during a wild moment in Game 7 of the Cavs’ series against the Toronto Raptors on Sunday at Rocket Arena in Cleveland, one that did not involve his perimeter shooting.
Strus was caught giving a headbutt to Raptors Scottie Barnes. He was called for a foul that later got upgraded to a flagrant 1.
Here is a video of Strus’ headbutt on Barnes.
It wasn’t clear in the video why Strus would commit such an act against Barnes. It certainly was not a good look on him, though it did not significantly affect the play of the Cavs, who got the job done in the do-or-die contest.
The Raptors started hot, building momentum right away on offense. But Cleveland fought back and tied the score at the half. Once the second half started, the Cavaliers took control of the contest and did not look back on their way to a 114-102victory. Cleveland outscored the Raptors in the third quarter by 19 points and staved off Toronto’s comeback attempts in the fourth period to advance to the second round, where Strus and company will face the top seed in the Eastern Conference, the Detroit Pistons.
In Game 7 of the Raptors series, Strus came off the bench and scored 12 points on 4-for-10 shooting from the field with two 3-pointers to go with eight rebounds, five assists and a block in 30minutes of action. Meanwhile, Barnes led Toronto with 24 points.