Woeful shooting costs Raptors
CLEVELAND • This time around LeBron James did not bring the Toronto Raptors down by himself.
The Raptors got beat because they couldn’t contain Jose Calderon, couldn’t finish around the rim for most of the first half and good parts of the second, and didn’t get much of a game at all out of Kyle Lowry.
On a night when Calderon, a guy whose job Lowry eventually took in Toronto, went off for 19 points, 14 of those in the first half when the Cavaliers set the tone for the game, Lowry shot just 2-for11 from the field and finished with five points, three assists and five rebounds in a 112-106 loss.
It wasn’t a good night to struggle given the optics of Lowry having spent the offday travelling to San Antonio for Villanova’s second national college title in three years.
The Raptors, like they did in Boston in a loss on Saturday, failed to shoot the ball with any kind of success going 11- for- 33 from behind the arc and shooting just 45 per cent from the field, a number they got to with some late success in garbage time.
The Cavs shot just under 50 per cent from the field and just under 45 per cent from distance.
Going into the game Rap- tors head coach Dwane Casey was preaching the need to get back to their defensive principals, something that has been lacking for the last six games.
The Raptors lost their defensive identity for long gaps in Cleveland.
Toronto’s lead in the Eastern Conference is at two games with the second-place Celtics also losing Tuesday night 106-102 to Milwaukee.
Those same Celtics will be in Toronto Wednesday for a game that could very well wind up deciding whether the Raptors have the No. 1 seed going into the playoffs.
Bottom line though is the Raps have five games before the playoffs start and the groove they’re currently in is not the one anyone associated with the team would like.
FIRST- HALF STRUGGLE
Yes, Lowry wasn’t quite himself and every Raptors’ fan with a Twitter account wanted to blame it on him heading to San Antonio and take in his beloved Villanova Wildcats as they won another NCAA title. Maybe he was fatigued but I would wager l arge money he’d never tell anyone if he was and only he knows the truth. Bottom l i ne is the team was fine with it and if they weren’t they would not have let him go.
In Lowry’s defence he didn’t have LeBron James sitting screens and picks for him when he was looking to get his shot off.
We will say Lowry certain- ly did not appear fatigued when he met the media at shootaround at about 10: 30 a.m.
LUE RAMPING UP TO A RETURN
Cavs head coach Ty Lue made another step toward his full- time return to the Cavaliers bench taking part in the Cavs shootaround Tuesday. Larry Drew, who is 7-1 since Lue left the bench said Lue has actually been around the team quite a bit the past five or six days.
CAVS STILL MESHING
The Cavs have been working in new players into their rotation with the likes of Rodney Hood, Larry Nance Jr, and Jordan Clarkson, who have little to no NBA playoff experience.
“We’ve still got work to do,” Drew said. “They’re still new to the job. There are still things they need to understand.”
Hood comes in with 11 games of playoff experience. Clarkson and Nance Jr. don’t have any.
“You can’t feel the brunt of it until you are thrown into the fire,” Drew said of his playoff neophytes.
RECOGNITION METER SPIKES
For those that worry about this kind of thing, it appears the Raptors’ level of notice south of the border is on the rise. This past weekend the Simpsons aired an episode where Krusty the clown is making a list of demands and one of them is to have all home Raptors games off because he is the Spike Lee of the Raptors. Told of this recently Raptors head coach Dwane Casey admitted he didn’t watch the show, refused to let his kids watch the show but was fine with any added attention the franchise receives. “OK, that’s good,” Casey said. “Whoever that is, I’m sure my kids will know who it is when they sneak and watch it, but that’s good, that’s good.”