The Cavaliers aren't panicking yet, despite surrendering Game 4 to Raptors

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There are any number of questions that were raised about the Cavaliers on Sunday, and over the two games in Toronto the past few days. But this is a big one: How badly must the Cavs have shot it for the Raptors to have built an entire house with the amount of bricks they threw up there and still won the game? “Just couldn’t hit s–t, couldn’t make a shot,” Donovan Mitchell said, holding back a brief chuckle. “I’m not saying it’s funny. It’s just, sometimes, the answer is the shot going in.” It’s almost like you can picture yourself walking into a back alley, the Raptors sitting on a stool, both eyes swollen, dried blood on a cheek, cigarette hanging out of their collective mouth. You ask, “What the heck happened to you?” and they say, “You should see the other guy.” Yeah, the other guy shot 10 of 40 from 3, committed another 18 turnovers, gave away an eight-point lead with 4 ½ minutes left, and were outscored 29-2 over the final two minutes of the second, third, and fourth quarters to lose Game 4 by a total of four points. The other guy also coughed up 21 offensive rebounds to the Raptors and were outscored by 10 points off turnovers. A series that seemed firmly in the palm of the Cavs’ hand is now tied, 2-2, with Game 5 in Cleveland on Wednesday night. James Harden has been to the playoffs in each of his 17 pro seasons. Mitchell, in each of his nine. That’s a lot of postseason basketball in one team’s backcourt. So, maybe it’s no surprise that both of them were asked if the weekend, especially Game 4, felt like a “missed opportunity,” and both of them said “1,000 percent” yes. What is more of a surprise is them combining to shoot 12 of 38 on Sunday and totaling 11 turnovers. Also a bit of a shocker – they have 244 playoff games between them, combined, there is no defense they haven’t seen 100 times over, and yet the “top lock” Toronto sprung on them in Game 3 and stuck with in Game 4 has neutralized them. They’re missing shots and coughing up the ball at alarming rates. In the two games in Toronto, Mitchell shot 7 of 16 in Game 3 on Thursday (1 of 7 on 3s) and 6 of 24 in Game 4. He also had four turnovers, including a disastrous 8-second violation with 40.8 seconds left and Cleveland clinging to an 87-86 lead. Harden produced only 6-of-14 shooting in Game 4 with seven more turnovers, adding to the eight he committed Thursday night. The Raptors’ big defensive adjustments heading into Game 3 were to “top lock,” which basically disrupts screens happening away from the ball, and to extend perimeter pressure well beyond the 3-point line. You could give Toronto credit for a bit of a surprise move to go to that kind of defense on Thursday, but players with the experience of Harden and Mitchell should have had better answers by Game 4. “I think we made the adjustments. It’s just neither team could hit a shot,” Mitchell said. Harden admitted mild surprise that the Cavs weren’t able to handle the Raptors’ pressure in Game 4, but also said “I think we did a better job today” than they did with Toronto’s pressure in Game 3. “Guys got to be aggressive with the top lock, which is an adjustment,” Harden said. “I think it’s time for us to make an adjustment in a sense of just being aggressive and getting to the basket and taking shots and opportunities when we have them.” Reporter’s note: Things like “be aggressive” are typically NOT permitted in any playoff story I write, as it is an ultimate NBA cliché, right up there with tired boxing metaphors used to describe the reasons one loses in the playoffs. But Harden was being specific — to beat that kind of pressure the Cavs have to be quicker with their decision making and it may mean either darting to the rim more quickly with the ball, or giving it up quicker to an interior player so he can head toward the rim. To that end, Jarrett Allen, one of the Cavs’ two rim-running bigs, shot 1 of 5, and Evan Mobley was 4 of 11. Allen contributed 15 rebounds, and the Cavs outscored Toronto by 4 when he was on the court; Mobley’s minutes were worse (minus-13 when he was out there), and he finished with eight points and nine boards. “JA was phenomenal — he couldn’t make anything, but he was phenomenal on the boards,” said Mitchell, leading one to wonder how many definitions of “phenomenal” are out there? “Evan has been one of our best players in this series,” Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson added. “Maybe tonight, you could argue he wasn’t, but he has been one of our better players throughout the series.” That’s an interesting debate topic, too. Mobley was strong in Games 1 and 2, but while he dithered in Toronto, Scottie Barnes was dominant. He added 23 points and nine rebounds to his 33 points from Game 3, and is showing no regard for Cleveland’s defense with the ferocity he uses to attack the rim. If there is a Cavs defender in his way, all the better. Barnes has tried on many occasions to go through them. In fact, one adjustment Atkinson made was to move defensive stopper Dean Wade off of Brandon Ingram and onto Barnes, because he had picked up early in Game 4 where he finished Game 3. Barnes shot 6 of 15 in Game 4, but Ingram, largely with Wade elsewhere, had his most productive game of the series with 23 points. He shot 6 of 23 from the field, but it’s a strange situation for the Cavs – needing to move Wade onto the Raptors’ hottest offensive player, instead of relying on the 2025 NBA Defensive Player of the Year (Mobley) to check Barnes. Atkinson also said the Cavs went away from Mobley on offense down the stretch because Toronto was using reserve rookie Collin Murray-Boyles (15 points, 10 rebounds) on him, and the Cavs didn’t want Murray-Boyles to become even more involved than he already was. In summation, these two games were a mess for Cleveland’s side. Old traits of a lack of composure and a wilting under physical pressure reared their ugly heads. And yet it is still too early in the series to start reading riot acts or issuing reminders of the expectations carried by the NBA’s most expensive roster – which is what Cleveland has. The Cavs are relying on their experience and respecting the job the Raptors did at home. Game 5 is in Cleveland, as is Game 7 (if necessary), and Cleveland is choosing to look at its situation more like an even split between the fourth and fifth-ranked teams in the East, instead of a series that is inexplicably tied because the franchise with way more talent allowed itself to be bullied. The Cavs get that benefit of doubt … for one more game. “They did what they’re supposed to do, right?” Atkinson said. “You’re home. You’re supposed to win in the playoffs. That’s how this works. This seems like a typical playoff series to me. You know, 4-5, there’s no big surprises here. No big mysteries. We definitely changed some things. I think some of our changes were really good.” They would do well to change the outcome on the scoreboard, before the discussions get really difficult around here. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms