Raptors fumble away Game 1 to the Cavaliers: 3 takeaways

The Cavaliers. The Raptors. Playing Game 1 of a playoff series. I think you know where this is going.

There are losses. And then there are LOSSES. For the Raptors, all caps doesn’t even begin to describe it. This was the kind of gut-punch, face-punch, several-more-ear-punches-while-you’re-on-the-ground, heart in a blender, watch it spin around to a beautiful oblivion loss that stays with you. If the Raptors can’t figure out how to come back and win this series, it’s the kind of loss that stays with you forever, breaking spirits and legacies and…damn it…I’m all out of hyperbole.

This was a bad one.

The Raptors had every chance to win this game, up to and including four shot attempts on the final possession of regulation. They gave up a 12-point lead at the end of the first quarter and a 10-point lead early in the four quarter. The Cavaliers had the mojo and, after the best regular season in franchise history, the Raptors are back in the position of trying to catch LeBron James.

Takeaways

LeBron James was limited, and the Raptors still lost. One of the big questions heading into this series was how Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby would be able to handle LeBron defensively. Both players did an admirable job against him during the regular season and that mostly continued in this game. LeBron repeatedly ground down possessions to attack Anunoby in the post. Yes, LeBron finished with a 26-point, 13-assists, 11-rebound triple-double. But he also was 12-of-30 from the field, 1-of-8 on 3-pointers and 1-of-6 on free throws. From luck to effective pressure, the Raptors got everything they could have asked for in their efforts to stop LeBron. But it didn’t matter.

Jonas Valanciunas was big, and the Raptors still lost. Valanciunas hadn’t really played down the stretch at all during the first round, before a big fourth quarter in Game 6 helped the Raptors close out the Wizards. The big man had been virtually unplayable against the Cavaliers in the playoffs the past two seasons but he was enormous in Game 1. Valanciunas pounded Cleveland on the glass, finished around the rim and was able to hold his own enough defending in space on the pick-and-roll to make all that a net positive. He did miss a few bunnies down the stretch but Valanciunas wrapped up the game He with 21 points and 21 rebounds. Cleveland only outscored Toronto by three points in the 34 minutes he was on the floor. But it didn’t matter.

Next: LeBron James can't afford to leave anything to chance

Just like the Raptors drew it up, except the Raptors sill lost. When Toronto redesigned their offense this season one of the ideas was to rely less on the individual creation abilities of Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan. The intent was to help them be more effective, and help the team be less reliant on their offensive outputs. In many ways, this game was an exemplar of their perfect outcome. DeRozan and Lowry combined for just 32 shot attempts, while seven other players had at least five. Both DeRozan and Lowry shot better than 50 percent from the field and they combined for 15 assists to just six turnovers. The bench was 5-of-11 on 3-pointers. And it still didn’t matter.