Hard to believe the worst 3-point shooting team in the NBA hit 51.4% and on the road to boot. I don't know if the Cavs were just horrible defensively or the Raptors were just insanely hot.
In three games against the Cavs the Raptors are 44-for-95 from deep, or 46.3%. Overall they are at 32.2%. I have no idea why they shoot so much better on 3's against us than the rest of the league.
Normally if they take 37 threes like tonight they would make about 13 of them (35%). Tonight they made 19, which is 18 additional points. They won by 11.
The Cavs were an embarassing 18-for-30 on free throws. On the season the Cavs are making 80% from the line, so you would expect them to make 24 out of 30. So they left 6 points at the line tonight. Combine that with the extra 18 points the Raptors got on 3's and that's a 24-point difference in an 11-point loss.
My guess is this is the first game of the season where the Raptors shot over 50% from deep.
The Cavs were also dominated on the offensive glass 11-6 and on fast break points. They also fell into the trap of coming out lethargic in the 3rd as the Raptors pushed a 16-point halftime lead to 25 in less than two minutes. JBB was so mad he pulled the entire starting lineup less than 3 minutes into the 3rd quarter. They deserved it.
I thought after losing twice in Toronto the Cavs would be motivated to get some payback but the Raptors seemed to want it a lot more. They got steals, offensive rebounds, and seemed to get every loose ball.
I agree with the announcers that we don't match up well against this team. The Raptors have excellent wings (Siakam, Anunoby, Barnes) and they dominate against Okoro, Stevens, and Cedi, outscoring them 77-34.
You would think Allen and Mobley would dominate inside but the Raptors do a great job of surrounding the ball when it goes to a big in the paint and stripping him or blocking the shot. Allen and Mobley went 10-for-13 but for some reason we didn't go to them enough; Mitchell was having a horrible shooting night but put up 16 shots.
With the Raptors missing Achiuwa and Porter we needed to force the ball inside to our bigs and try to get their wings in foul trouble. But Garland and Mitchell put up 29 shots. Garland had five turnovers.
The Cavs can beat this team if they hit their normal 80% on free throws and limit the Raptors to their usual 33% on 3's. But they need Mitchell to shoot a little better. The Raptors have his number. He's 19-for-48 in three games.