Recap Game 4: Raptors 105, Cavs 99 (Or, Wasting the Comeback)

The Cavs let the Raptors bully them for two straight quarters. They entered halftime down 16 points and were just 3-22 from beyond the arc. Kyle Lowry had 15 points and hit three 3s in the second quarter alone.

Yet, the Cavs managed to comeback in the third quarter. Kyrie Irving went off for 12 and hit two 3s to help Cleveland pull within nine. They started the final frame ultra hot, dropping their first ten shots to get a two point lead.

Cleveland then went just 1-10, taking seven 3s, in the final four minutes of the game. With 22 seconds left to play J.R. Smith, got switched onto Lowry. The Raptors were up just four at that point. Instead of getting into his defensive stance, Smith let Lowry blow by him, which put the Raptors up by six. That sealed the game.

The Cavs mounted a comeback. That’s a fact, but they used all their energy just to get back into in this game. They had no energy left to finish off the Raptors when they needed to.

Toronto showed up to play and made the entire evening a battle. DeMar DeRozan had 32 points on 14-23 shooting. Kyle Lowry had 35 points on 14-20 shooting to go with five rebounds and five assists.

LeBron James led the Cavs with 29 points, six assists. and nine rebounds. Irving had 26 points and six boards.

The first quarter opened up with both teams pushing the pace. Lowry scored the first points off a mid-range jumper. The Raptors then raced out to an 11-5 lead, despite the Cavs getting open shots. Cleveland was 1-6 from deep and even had two offensive boards. After Lowry penetrated into the paint and hit Bismack Biyombo for an oop, Lue called a timeout with 7:29 to go.

The Cavs could not hit their 3s in the first.

The Cavs steadied themselves after the break. Rather than playing fast, they moved the ball with purpose. Irving drove and found the King cutting baseline for a violent oop. Irving then got a cutting layup, receiving the ball from Love in the paint. A little later in the quarter Kyrie drove into the paint, forced Biyombo to leave his feet, and then hit James for an uncontested layup.

The Cavs played LeBron on DeMar, but LeBron refused to fight through screens to stay on him. DeMar scored six points, but he was getting open for mid-range jumpers whenever he wanted to. He could attack whenever he wanted to, since LeBron refused to stay on him.

Kevin Love missed three straight 3-pointers in the final four minutes and the Cavs went into the second quarter down, 27-24.

Cleveland really fell apart in the second quarter. Sensing something bad must be coming, Lue left LeBron in the game, despite him getting a very short rest in the first. He got to share the court with Matthew Dellavedova, Iman Shumpert, Channing Frye, and Tristan Thompson. James asserted his dominance right away walking into a 3-pointer, which he bricked. The next play James Johnson waltzed to the rim uninhibited. Delly attempted to keep the energy up, forcing a jump ball with Johnson and drawing a charge on Johnson. Those two plays were the highlight of the quarter.

The Cavs played terrible defense. Shumpert was on Lowry for much of the time, and he kept getting caught on screens. Lowry hit one of his threes that way. On another one, Shumpert didn’t come up on him enough, and he just drilled it in from five feet behind the arc. Lowry had 15 points in the quarter.

Smith got burned by DeRozan at the end of the quarter so badly I knocked my water cup over in a fit of disgust. DeRozan ran off a screen set on the baseline and acted like he was heading to the corner for a 3-pointer. He reversed course and J.R. flew past him, as he cutback for an easy layup.

Kevin Love also got faked out by Lowry. Lowry had the ball at the top the of the key and looked to his right. Love cheated over several feet and his man, Patrick Patterson, cut to the hoop for the automatic basket. And, as if playing awful defense wasn’t enough, the King decided he was a jump shooter because Toronto kept giving him open long 2s. Just one of James’ seven shots came at the rim. Thankfully, he hit three of his four mid-range jumpers. James also got blocked at the rim by Biyombo on an oop. Bismack got called for the foul. The Cavs went into halftime down big, 57-41.

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The third quarter started with DeRozan hitting a floater over TT. Lowry then missed a jumper, even though Irving left him wide open after getting stuck to a screen. Irving made up for it though. He went on one of his mini “I’m unstoppable” runs. After nailing a mid-range shot off a screen, he dribbled into a three-pointer. Then he launched a corner 3-ball the next time down the floor after getting the ball rocketed to him from Smith. To cap his onslaught, Irving dribbled into the paint and hit Smith for a 3-pointer, which brought the Cavs within seven.

Tyronn Lue also looked to get Kevin Love going after Irving’s 11-2 run. It didn’t work out too well. Love blew an easy bunny rolling for James, and he got murdered by Biyombo at the rim when he tried to dribble in and be tough. He managed just five points on six shots.

DeMar and Lowry were again excellent for the Raptors. Each time their names appeared in my notes for the quarter, the words blow by or pointless Cavalier switch were nearby. The Cavs entered the final frame down by a manageable amount, 78-69.

The Cavs unleashed their secret weapon in the fourth quarter, the scrubs using the Delly-James pick and roll after LeBron has surveyed the court from the elbow. It’s a device as precise as anything NASA has ever dreamed of. RJ, who was 4-4 in the quarter, started the action by taking his man off the dribble for a reverse layup.

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Then Delly found Frye two times in a row for 3s. One time was just a pass and another time was a drive and kick. Scoring eight unanswered brought the Cavs within one. The Cavs would make their next seven shots, including a Delly-James oop, a James power drive to the rim, a James to RJ “I’m not gonna jump for this oop” oop, and a Delly floater off a James’ screen. After James hit Jefferson cutting to the rim for their tenth make in a row and a two point lead with 4:53 left, the Cavs couldn’t buy a shot.

Up until this point, Cleveland’s defense had been near perfect. Whenever the Raptors got the ball above the three line, they were trapping instantly. The Cavs made Lowry and DeRozan give up the ball. They also sucked up any Toronto miss. In the final minutes this changed. The Cavs were gassed and forgot about the little things.

With 2:46 left, Lowry whacked the King’s arm at the top of the arc and got a steal. It should have been called a foul.  He ran it down and the King fouled him. Lowry hit one of the free throws to put the Raptors up four. With 1:37 to go, the Cavs forced DeMar into a terrible fade away shot where he was falling out of bounds at the baseline. No one boxed out and Patrick Patterson grabbed the miss. DeMar then scored with a floater to put the Raptors up 103-99. The next play J.R. Smith decided to try to shoot over Biyombo instead of driving past him – it was blocked. With 22 seconds left, Lowry blew by Smith to seal the game, 105-99.  Rough finish by J.R.

Gripes

1. The Cavs took too many 3-pointers again. They were 13-41, 3-22 in the first half and 10-19 in the second half. When the 3-ball isn’t dropping the solution isn’t to keep taking it. It’s to get into the paint and get easy layups.
2. I understand that Toronto was packing the paint; however, there are these nifty things called back door cuts. If you have a ball handler get into the paint and draw defenders to him, no one is watching the baseline. A guy can execute a cut on the baseline and usually get an easy basket when teams are selling out to stop dribble drives.
3. Tyronn Lue told LeBron to stay on DeMar tonight. He told Shumpert to stay on Lowry. These two defensive assignments were meant to stop DeMar and Lowry from going off. If that was the goal of the assignments, why did LeBron seem perfectly okay switching off of DeMar any time another player from the Raptors (not even a screener necessarily) crossed his path? And, why did Shumpert seem more than okay to play three feet off of Lowry most of the night? Lue needs to take control of his game plan and make sure it gets executed.
4. Speaking of taking control, why didn’t Lue just bench Love before the fourth quarter. Love, again, was ineffective. He was 4-14 for ten points, and he had just seven rebounds. He was 2-7 from deep.
5. Defense is mostly about effort. If a player gets caught on a screen, he should make an attempt to fight over it or at the very least to make contact with another player on the offense. He should also pay enough attention to know when a guy is going to attempt to drive, so he can maybe stay in front of him. The Cavs have forgotten this. I have never seen so many players get stuck to screens and fall for misdirection dribbles
6. The Cavs need to post LeBron more. The Raptors were trying to send Bismack to him whenever he posted up. This created a mismatch somewhere else on the floor, and I trust LeBron to find that mismatch more times than not.
7. Bismack continued his dominant play. He had 14 boards and three blocks.
8. Lue should be playing Frye or Love at the five at all times when Biyombo is on the floor. It’s the smart thing to do because it pulls him away from the rim and makes it easier for guys to drive to the hole.
9. LeBron played 45 minutes, and Irving played 38. No one else played more than 31. Lue might have burned those two out and the Cavs didn’t even get a win.

Hypes

1. The Cavs actually made a comeback and played pretty great offensive basketball from the start of the third until midway through the fourth.
2. The Delly, James, Shumpert, Frye, Jefferson group was fantastic again. Delly knows how to run a pick and roll, and makes something productive out of it. Why didn’t Lue throw this group in when the starters started to drown in a sea of missed 3s? The first seven minutes of the fourth consisted almost entirely of the James-Delly pick and roll in some form.
3. Cleveland found their 3-point stroke in the second half, so there is hope that the drought is over.
4. The Cavs return home for game five on Wednesday.