Ghosts of past in Raps’ collapse

Self-inflicted swoon in Game 1 makes skeleton Cavs look good

There’s a sequence of events that probably can’t keep repeating itself if the Raptors hope to defeat LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the best-of-seven playoff series that opened with a thud at the Air Canada Centre Tuesday night.

Maybe you observed the disturbing pattern: The Raptors, attacking a laughably porous Cleveland defence, would come down and make an inexplicably dumb play — you know, such as one of their nine first-half turnovers, or another in their collection of botched possessions that ended in out-of-control prayers. And in response, James would calmly lead his limping, undermanned team to the other end and make an invariably smart play. James would find a teammate for an open shot, or create a straight-line drive to the rim.

And before you knew it, James had taken a game his team should have been losing in a landslide and had the Cavaliers down a possession at halftime. Before you knew it, James was firing up a mid-range jumper that could have won the game at the regulation buzzer had it gone in. Before you knew it, James and the Cavaliers were handing the Raptors a stunning overtime loss, 113-112.

Never mind that the Cavaliers were seven-point underdogs. The Raptors were the evening’s unfortunate pooches. Too many empty possessions, too little production from the vaunted bench, too little poise in the clutch — it was enough for James to use a skeleton crew to remind the Raptors of the ghosts of the past. Cleveland, which has bounced Toronto from the playoffs the past two springs, just swiped away home-court advantage courtesy of one disastrously executed performance by a home team that needs to play better.

Consider it a lesson that ought to be learned quickly: If the Raptors make the mistake of beating themselves — if they bring the giveaways, vacant defence and disorganized offence they brought Tuesday — James will happily feast on the spoils of such carelessness. His team shouldn’t be good enough to beat the Raptors, but he’s more than capable of making them look silly.

This was a game, to be clear, the Raptors should have won by 20-plus points. James was great. But his 26 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds weren’t overwhelming — hardly a repeat of, say, the 45 points he’d scored in Sunday’s Game 7 of a first-round series win over the Pacers, the most in an NBA Game 7 since Boston’s Sam Jones scored 47 back in 1963.

This wasn’t James single-handedly commandeering a game; he shot a dead-legged 3 for 11 in the fourth quarter, a measly 27 per cent.

The problem was the Raptors, as a team, shot 21 per cent in the final frame of regulation, when Jonas Valanciunas was an ugly 1 for 7 and DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry combined for two points. Fred VanVleet’s missed three-pointer with three seconds left in overtime – which could have put Toronto ahead — didn’t go, either.

Every Cleveland lineup proved leaky beyond repair. The Raptors didn’t take advantage often enough.

So much for the theory Cleveland doesn’t have the scoring balance to win here. While Toronto took an Indianainspired view of defending James, confronting him with the one-on-one defence of OG Anunoby and Pascal Siakam, among others, they couldn’t hold the rest of the Cavs down. While just one Cav not named James averaged double figures in points in the first round, by the end of regulation four of James’s teammates had scored at least 12 points. It was all the support he needed.

One game into another bestof-seven series, it’s more than clear that James is quite capable of engineering a formidable offence, one on five. Even if he’s surrounded by a supporting cast that wouldn’t sniff the playoffs without him, on Tuesday he strolled through Toronto’s single-coverage defence with his usual mix of peerless power and point-guard vision.

Anunoby offered game de- fence. The Toronto rookie arrived at the opening tip and avoided the NBA-standard glad-handing with the opponent. He didn’t offer James so much as a friendly fist bump. He didn’t even nod in his check’s direction. But there were times – and this is no fault of Anunoby’s – that James, too, operated as though Anunoby did not exist.

The trouble for Cleveland came on defence, where pretty much every Cleveland lineup proved to be leaky beyond repair. The Raptors didn’t take advantage often enough.

James wasn’t perfect. He missed five of his first six free throws. He often settled for the long jump shots that the Raptors will be happy to watch him launch.

Still, for a lot of Tuesday, you could have been convinced the King simply doesn’t have the horses. Early in the game, teammate after teammate missed the open shots James’s vision and passing inevitably create.

The Cavaliers not named James missed 14 of their first 18 shots. Kevin Love missed layups. George Hill and J.R. Smith missed one each, too.

In those early moments, the Raptors needed to step on Cleveland’s collective throat and go up by more points. There would have been nothing James could have done. But Toronto’s first-half mistakes were almost all self-inflicted. They’d make a dumb play, James would follow with an invariably smart one. It’s a pattern that needs to stop if the Raptors are serious about finally bouncing LeBron.

Even James shouldn’t be good enough to beat the Raptors. But if the Raptors selfdestruct, he and his skeleton crew of running mates are more than capable of making the No. 1 seed regret its stumbles.