The Cleveland Cavaliers couldn’t do enough on the defensive end to hold off the Toronto Raptors as they pulled out a 126-113 victory. The Raptors have now won both contests in Cleveland this season and have now won six of their last seven games.
This has been a frustrating start to the season for the Cavs. Every time they show glimpses of being the team that won 64 games last year — as they did with an inspiring short-handed victory over the Miami Heat on Wednesday — they take two steps back.
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The Cavaliers were not the more aggressive team. They once again weren’t able to get to the rim, settled for too many jumpers, didn’t make those jumpers, and couldn’t be bothered to rotate or stop dribble-drives on defense. This all led to an uninspiring performance where it never truly felt like they had a chance of winning.
Donovan Mitchell led the team with 31 points, six assists, six rebounds, and seven costly turnovers. It was a solid scoring performance, even though it wasn’t enough to overcome the turnovers and the team’s lack of defense.
Nae’Qwan Tomlin provided a much-needed spark off the bench as he added 18 points and six rebounds while playing meaningful fourth-quarter minutes.
Craig Porter Jr. also supplied some useful minutes as he once again filled in admirably in the backup point guard spot. He contributed 10 points on 4-6 shooting and five assists.
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On the other side of the coin, the Cavs’ two bigs made little to no impact on this game. Evan Mobley looked lost on the offensive end and didn’t play with the force he needed to on the defensive end. He contributed just seven points on 2-7 shooting with nine rebounds.
Jarrett Allen’s performance was the complete opposite of the nights before. As we’ve seen before, his impact is based entirely on the effort and force he puts in. He put in hardly any as he finished with six points and eight rebounds in 21 minutes.
The Raptors were led by Scottie Barnes’s near triple-double. He had a team-high 28 points, 10 rebounds, and eight assists to just two turnovers. Immanuel Quickly added 25 points on 10-13 shooting.
This wasn’t how the Cavaliers would’ve liked to have kicked off their six-game homestand. We’ll see if they can rebound on Saturday evening when they host the Memphis Grizzlies.
