With four minutes left in the first half, Patrick Patterson hit a three pointer that pulled the Toronto Raptors even with the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 2 of their Eastern Conference showdown. They didn’t make another field goal the rest of the half and Cavs hit the break with a 14-point lead and a 2-0 lead in the series all but sewn up.
Cleveland led by double-digits the rest of the way, finishing with a 108-89 victory, their 10th consecutive win in this year’s Eastern Conference Playoffs. LeBron James was the catalyst, registering a 23-11-11 triple double, while Kyrie Irving was the high man for the Cavs with 26 and Kevin Love adding 19. DeMar DeRozan paced Toronto with 22 on 8-for-18 shooting and 6-for-6 from the line.
Those final four minutes of the first half are the perfect encapsulation of the problem facing Toronto in this series, as without Jonas Valanciunas, they’re reduced to being a jump-shooting team that doesn’t have any great shooters.
DeRozan is a good shooter, but often settles for contested jumpers and dribbles himself into trouble far too often. Kyle Lowry is generally a good shooter as well, but he’s gone ice cold again in this series, collecting just 10 points on 4-for-14 shooting (1-for-8 from deep) on Thursday night.
And while Toronto doesn’t have anyone that can get their shot consistently enough that you feel confident seeing them pull up in space, Cleveland has both Irving and James, both of whom have been able to get to the iron at will over the first two games as well. When you add Love into the mix, it becomes untenable for Toronto, as they just don’t have the talent to go shot-for-shot with the Cavs or the defensive capabilities to shut them down in the offensive end.
Having Valanciunas would certainly make things a little more interesting, as he presents match-up issues for Cleveland when Toronto has the ball, but “JV” isn’t enough to turn this series around.
Cleveland is playing with a chip on their shoulder, having hit their stride late in the regular season and carrying in through into the playoffs, where they have yet to lose a game. They’ve figured out how to make things work with James, Irving and Love all being involved in their preferred ways and are readily sharing the ball and Toronto just can’t get there.
While Toronto pushed for the entire regular season, bent on re-setting the franchise record for wins with Lowry and DeRozan logging heavy minutes, they don’t have the second gear needed to get to the next level in a series like this, especially not when Lowry is struggling, DeRozan needs 20 shots to get 20 points and everyone else is underperforming.
In theory, nothing has changed in this series as Cleveland has simply held serve on their home court and now Toronto gets two games at the Air Canada Centre to potentially even things out, but it just doesn’t feel like that’s where this is headed.
Hopefully returning home to play in front of the raucous crowd at the ACC injects some life into this squad and they’re able to earn a victory on Saturday because if that doesn’t happen, it feels like the Cavaliers will head into the Finals without having lost a game.
