Recap Game 3: Raptors 99, Cavaliers 84(Or, The Finger Wave Has Made a Comeback)

One doesn’t need to have Dikembe Mutombo prescience to have predicted Game 3 as the first loss of the Cavaliers’ playoff season. The Raptors have been good in moments of desperation. Their fantastic home crowd was primed to host their first Eastern Conference Finals game in full throat. Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan were due for good shooting games. Yes, the Cavalier loss was not horribly shocking in the grand scheme of things. Let’s get to it.

1st Quarter:

The Raptors made a point to get DeMar DeRozan the first look of the night. Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy got all excited about the Raptors’ new offensive wrinkle, but really DeRozan just ran through a series of screens like usual. Yes, he faded instead of curled, but that is a standard adjustment that varies play to play. The only real difference with the first possession of the game was that DeRozan made a nice upfake to draw the foul on the trailing J.R. Smith. The announcing team’s call on the play was indicative of the overall flavor of the quarter. The Raptors, the announcers, and really anyone not actively cheering for the Cavaliers were all desperate for some evidence that this game wouldn’t follow the normal Cavalier playoff script.

Dwayne Casey did make a substantial defensive adjustment. After watching LeBron James post play destroy opponents for the last few weeks, Casey made an interesting move to switch Bismack Biyombo onto LeBron in any post situation. It wasn’t a universal switch of assignment. DeMarre Carroll still had the primary job, but any time LeBron would look to establish first half post position, Biyombo would rush over and shoo Carroll away. It had the desired effect. LeBron settled for two early jump shots against Biyombo. Even though both found nylon, the Cavalier offensive flow was a bit stinted.

When the ball did find its way around the court, Kyrie Irving was rather hesitant in his catch and shoot/dribble game. Uncle Drew caught and held for the extra moment that allowed the defense to recover. The Cavs still found good things in Pick and Roll. Tristan Thompson made a nice pass as the roll man to a baseline dunking LeBron. Kevin Love was able to squeeze a roll man pass to the weakside for a left-wing J.R. Swish bomb. But, the Raptors did do a better job of closing off passing angles and restricting the ping pang pong hockey assists.

Defensively, Cleveland continued to play a morphing man/zone that overloaded the strong side while switching almost every screen action. DeMar DeRozan resumed his strong early game play this series. Completely locked in from mid-range, DeRozan was patient getting to his preferred elbow spots. The Cavs switch and swarm defense will subside if an offense is patient with the rock. LeBron will often show hard and then reclaim his man instead of completing the switch. Kyle Lowry was able to drill a three after LeBron pressed hard into the show, without making it completely clear to Kyrie which responsibility was whose. When Iman Shumpert checked in for LeBron at the 3:38 mark with the Cavaliers trailing 18-21, he and Kevin immediately got tangled in a Shakespearean “to switch or not to switch” that allowed DeRozan that split second to drive to the cup.

The playoff version of these mistakes has been far more subtle than the matador regular season, but a small lean the wrong direction is enough to give up buckets. The Cavs battled and didn’t make any huge errors, but an 0 for everything quarter from Kyrie and Kevin, a hot shooting Toronto backcourt, and a 10 rebound quarter from Biyombo combined to give the Raptors their first quarter win of the series. 27-24, Toronto.

2nd Quarter:

The Cavs killer lineup of Delly, Shump, RJ, Bron, and Channing Frye started the second period with a great deception play. With Shump handling on the left wing, Frye faked like he was going to ball screen before diving to the hole for an easy layup. Terrance Ross answered with a right wing three of his own for a little call and answer basketball. The Delly/LeBron Pick and Roll continued to be unstoppable as LeBron was able to follow a Delly miss with a strong man putback. It was nice to see Mathew Dellavedova on the court, but he was seemingly a step slow on defense. His offensive handle was still solid, but Mathew didn’t have his same spring. The Raptors were finally knocking down open shots for really the first time in the series. James Johnson made the Cavs pay for their poor defensive rebounding. Frye stayed hot for the Cavaliers drilling two threes, one after a crazy upfake. Trailing 35-38, LeBron sold a whistle for Kyle Lowry’s third foul of the game. Lowry headed to the bench with fouls, and Delly headed to the bench in favor of Kyrie. A couple of open three misses from J.R. and a missed layup from Shump allowed the Raptors to build momentum. Patrick Patterson drilled a three before Biyombo ate up a Irving “open” layup. The subsequent Cory Joseph three pushed it to 49-37 and forced Lue to call a timeout with 4:08 remaining.

Out of the timeout, Kevin passed up an open corner three in favor of his side-step upfake. He didn’t draw the foul. Instead, Carroll hit a three in transition to push the lead to 15. From there DeMar DeRozen got straight filthy with mid-range Js and strong drives to the cup. Only some deep shooting from Kyrie in isolation kept the game in shouting distance.

Then the ridiculousness brought the game to a crashing halt. Tristan made a nice block on a Biyombo dunk attempt. On the way up the floor, Bismack made a dumb transition foul on Kyrie with the Cavs in the bonus. Tristan took exception to the hard foul and got into Biyombo’s face. Cory Joseph, assuming he could calm both guys down, simply escalated the situation which in turn brought LeBron and Carroll over to the argument. In a twist of semi-agitated bodies, Carroll pushed Tristan’s arm up while Tristan pulled away causing Tristan’s arm to inadvertently hit LeBron in the face. I heard circus music and was amused. The refs took a few years to sort it out. We were left with a double tech on Tristan and Joseph, a common foul on Biyombo, and embarrassment for the King. The Cavs were down 18 at the time. Kyrie converted from the stripe and LeBron drilled his left-wing three to go into halftime with a 60-47 deficit.

3rd Quarter:

A fantastic strip steal by LeBron led to a transition three for Kevin Love’s first and only points of the evening. Another strip steal shortly after ended with a super strong man’s And-1 from the King.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOHYTZLcQK0

The Cavs had a 14-2 run spanning the end of the first half to the beginning of the second to pull within 56-62. From there, the offense really started to click. Better ball and player movement created far better shots, but the Cavaliers failed to convert those good opportunities. Kyrie and Kevin struggled mightily to drain the open looks. Defensively, Love had trouble communicating on off ball screens which allowed DeRozen too much airspace. Bismack Biyombo was a force inside as a rebounder and rim-protector. Still, the Cavs offense was running rather well. One particularly sweet play saw LeBron on ball with Kyrie as the screen/roll man. LeBron hit Kyrie on the roll and Irving tossed it back to Bron as he trailed toward the rim. The moment the weakside crashed to contain a possible James jam, LeBron found J.R Swish in the left corner for his sixth three of the evening. 65-70.

Following the stoppage, Frye checked in for Tristan and the offense continued to create open shots. Unlike previous games, those looks didn’t create a tidal wave of basketball destruction. The Cavs missed the chance to completely turn around the game. Some more grown man play by Biyombo and a buzzer beating Joseph three gave the Raptors a ten point lead going to the fourth. 80-70, Drakes.

4th Quarter: 

Lue went back to the Kyrie version of the bench mob with Delly, Shump, RJ, and Frye. They may have only lost those first four minutes by two points, but it was a disaster. Kyrie immediately relapsed into severe hero ball nonsense. Delly couldn’t get any PnR rhythm on the few occasions he did have the rock. Instead of spacing or cutting while Delly tried to run a Frye PnPop, Kyrie crowded the space and asked for the ball. Defensively, there was no rim protection on the weakside without LeBron’s size at the four. Fortunately, the Raptors missed some bunnies. Regardless, it was an awful stretch and a miserably poor decision by Tyronn Lue.

Out of the timeout, Bron subbed in for Kyrie and the offense immediately yielded a better shots. Like in the third quarter, the better shot didn’t drop as Mathew’s layup rattled in and out. A wide open RJ corner three clanked off the rim before a lucky transition reverse broke the Cavs’ seal. The Raptors were still up ten with about six minutes remaining, but the crowd was eerily quiet as the team failed to score for over five minutes. When Toronto didn’t convert after two offensive rebounds, the crowd was officially terrified. LeBron found JR for what is becoming a patented backdoor cut to the rim and it seemed as though Cleveland was about to make the surge.

The Toronto crowd finally had something to cheer about when Bismack Biyombo threw down an alley-oop from Kyle Lowry. The young bigman followed his first field goal of the night with a little jump hook that crawled over the rim. A no call on a James drive and an awful offensive foul call on a Shumpert screen short-circuited two nice offensive sets for the Cavs. The game was essentially lost when Frye and LeBron both converged on DeMar DeRozen leaving Biyombo wide open under the rim for a fan favorite dunk. 91-77.

A questionable flagrant foul call that went in LeBron’s favor produced an opportunity for a five point trip, but Kyrie’s left corner jumper missed badly. With 1:38, down 14, Lue cleared the bench.

Thoughts: 

This was obviously the worst shooting game of the playoffs from Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving. What was more disappointing was that it was also their worst defensive performance. Kevin, in particular, was largely a disaster on the defensive end of the floor, allowing off ball screens to kill teammates and generally playing a step slow and without force. We have seen the Cavs be effective without big scoring games from Kevin, but not when he only pulls down four rebounds. It was not horribly surprising to see Lue ride Frye in the fourth.

I’ve already ripped Kyrie for his play, and Lue for his rotation at the start of the fourth quarter so I won’t do it again here. I will assume that Lue was trying to take it easy on Delly’s ankle. If not, there is no good excuse for yanking him only five minutes into the second quarter.

LeBron was too content to settle for threes and jumpers against Biyombo. But, LeBron did enough to for the team to win. Really, had there not been a lid on the bucket during the beautiful stretch of offense in the third quarter, it would have been a different game. Love and Kyrie missed in a “make and miss” league.

BUT, let’s give Bismack Biyombo his props for a fantastic game. It’s no secret on C:TB that Nate and I love Biyombo. The young man had an absolutely monstrous game with 26 boards, eight on the offensive end, four blocks, game finishing buckets, and a mean streak that the Raptors desperately need to stay competitive. Yeah, Lowry and DeRozan made shots combining for 52 points, but Biyombo won the game. He was positively Ben Wallacian in this one.

The Cavs lost. They lost in the style that they lost in the regular season. Ya know, with questionable rotations, bad hero ball, and poor defensive communication. But, it is likely one game. Until next time.