Repeated misses end Raptors’ best shot
Toronto shooters can’t keep pace from long range, or in decisive fourth quarter
The NBA world is evolving at an accelerated rate, a game of space and pace and effective shooting. The Toronto Raptors have been unable to keep up, and it appears to have cost them their season.
Despite a sublime performance from DeMar DeRozan and three quarters of toughness that coach Dwane Casey had demanded, Toronto’s inability to consistently make shots — an absolute must in the game these days — doomed it in a 115-94 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers in their NBA Eastern Conference semifinal Friday night.
The win, sealed by a 20-3 Cleveland run to start the fourth quarter, gave the Cavaliers a 3-0 lead in the bestof-seven series. They can bid adieu to the Raptors by taking Sunday’s Game 4.
DeRozan scored 37 points, a career playoff high and an emphatic answer to critics who ravaged him after a five-point Game 2, but he couldn’t do it alone. When he rested for less than two minutes to start the fourth quarter, the Cavs turned a two-point lead into a commanding eight-point bulge. DeRozan scored only one point the rest of the way.
“He got, what, a minute and a half, I think, and he needed that,” Casey said. “Once he came back in . . . I thought he had some of the same looks once he came back in but he was drained.”
The Raptors were without starting point guard Kyle Lowry, who couldn’t get past a sprained left ankle, and that surely cut into their offence. Lowry is the team’s best three-point shooter and its secondleading scorer and his absence was a factor.
But there were so many other opportunities that it would be foolish to use Lowry’s absence as an excuse or even an explanation for what transpired.
Toronto made just two of 18 threepoint attempts, while the Cavs were 13-for-23. The long-range shooting has been one of the most glaring dif- ferences in the series.
Yes, LeBron James is the most dominant player in the game but Kyle Korver made four three-pointers Friday, J.R. Smith made three and Kevin Love made the only one he tried. The Raptors? Cory Joseph was 0-for-4. Norm Powell, 1-for-7. Serge Ibaka, 0-for-3.
“Our three-point shooters have to take them and make them,” Casey said before the game. The optimist says they got it half right.
“It’s something we’ve done, we’ve knocked down threes all year and for some reason it’s escaped us right now,” Casey said.
The Raptors were up a point with 90 seconds left in the third quarter, having outplayed the Cavaliers for a long stretch when the shooting disparity between the teams showed the most.
Korver hit two three-pointers in the last 47 seconds of the third, then the Cavs rattled off five straight points in the first 1:52 of the final quarter and took control of the game.
“That’s what he’s here for,” Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said of Korver. “He’s a specialist. No matter the time and score, he’s willing to take those big shots and we love him.”
A James three-pointer with just over six minutes left — the capper on his 35-point night — gave Cleveland a 15-point lead and zapped the final dose of energy out of the crowd. The Raptors missed 11 of their first 12 field-goal attempts in the fourth.
After getting treatment almost all of Thursday and most of Friday, Lowry tried to go through the pregame layup line but left after just a few minutes.
“He was limping badly, he just couldn’t go,” Casey said.