It Was Over When....Well that hasn't happened in the fourth quarter in quite a while. The Raptors actually saw their rather impressive streak of converting 39 straight leads entering the fourth quarter into wins snapped on Tuesday with an abrupt power outage in the fourth. An odd finish after the Raptors recorded season-highs for points against the Cavs after one quarter (33) and at halftime (63). But the Raptors were plagued by turnovers in the third and then saw their offence -- particularly in the paint -- dry up in the fourth.
Toronto was ahead 95-85 with 8:51 to play and the Cavs proceeded to outscore them 20-6 the rest of the way. The Cavs made their share of tough shots, but their comeback was just as much about a parade to the free throw line early and often throughout the quarter (free throws attempts were 11-0 favouring Cleveland in the fourth) and grabbing key rebounds in clusters at curcial times.
'We've got to get rebounds when it counts. I thought our guys battled, fought and controlled the game for most of the game, but we've got to close it out. That's where we've got to get better. We had some crucial turnovers and rebounds that we didn't get at the end of the game. That's the name of the game. When you're playing playoff basketball and you're trying to be an elite team, you've got to be able to make those plays. Tonight we didn't.' The Game Changer
It was LeBron James the distributor in the last meeting between these two teams, but on Monday they got the version looking to score and he delivered with a game-high 34 points on 12-of-21 shooting from the field.
James initially seemed bothered by the defence of Landry Fields to start the game, but got his offence on track finished with a fairly evenly distributed game. But make no mistake, James was instrumental in the comeback, capping his 10-point effort in the fourth by breaking a 99-99 deadlock with a clutch triple.
'Without question, LeBron was there for us throughout the whole game,' said Cavs head coach David Blatt. 'His performance was very consistent throughout the game. I think that in the bad moments, (his energy) sort of kept us from losing our way completely. And then in the good moments, he obviously pulled us over the top. But he had a very consistent and outstanding performance pretty much from the get-go tonight.' The Underrated Raptor
Can't say that Jonas Valanciunas isn't making the most of his opportunities. The big man posted a second straight big double-double on Tuesday (18 pts, 15 rebs) -- his sixth of the season -- and somehow did it more efficiently than the night before.
Astoundingly, Valanciunas needed just seven shots from the floor to match team-high honours for the Raptors. He hit six of them and knocked down all six of his free throws in a whopping 37 minutes of action. His 15 rebounds represent both a season high and game high. That's A Rap
'I thought we had (LeBron) under control most of the night. But with that said, it wasn't him that got the key rebounds down the stretch - that was (Matthew) Dellavedova, Tristan Thompson and different people on the boards. We've got to come up with two-handed rebounds, man rebounds, and physical rebounds...whatever it takes to get those 50-50 balls in crunch time.' - Raptors head coach Dwane Casey, on a total team effort vs. the Cavs/em> By The Numbers
0 - Free throw attempts by the Raptors in the fourth quarter.
4 - Points in the paint for the Raptors in the fourth quarter after scoring 50 in the previous three.
38 - Second-half points for the Raptors on 16-42 (.381) shooting from the floor
9 - Second half turnovers for the Raptors.
14 - Biggest lead of the night for the Raptors. They Said It
'It's on us. (It was) little things. Guys were spaced close to each other and we took some tough shots that we missed. It's just execution on the floor that we usually do, and it wasn't there tonight.' - Amir Johnson, on the loss
'I think it was our defensive adjustments, especially there in the fourth quarter. It seemed like both teams were a little slow - them a little bit quicker than us, especially in the first three quarters. We were both on a back-to-back, both fighting to find our second wind. Luckily our big push there in the end was enough to overcome a very good team.'- Cavs forward Kevin Love on the Cleveland win
'You see what happens. We let a wide-open three by LeBron. When all is said and done, they went up by three and that was the game.'- Kyle Lowry on the Raptors' missing key rebounds/em> Up Next
The Raptors will prepare for a string of teams currently playing under .500, beginning with a first look at the Pacers on Friay at Air Canada Centre (7:30 PM, TSN, TSN 1050).
Post By http://www.nba.com/raptors/game-rap-raptors-101-cavs-105
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