Raptors fall to Cavaliers in Eastern Conference Final rematch

TORONTO — The last time LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers were in Toronto, it was loud. Following Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals, which the Cavs won to secure a trip to the NBA Finals, the crowd continued to chant, “Let’s go Raptors,” even as the game was all but decided.

It was a continuation of how the fans of the North had performed all post-season long, and James — like many — had taken notice.

“First of all,” said James to ESPN’s Doris Burke in a post-game interview, “do you hear this? Do you hear this? Unbelievable respect and much respect to these fans, to this country. This is unbelievable. I’ve never been a part of something like this in my 13-year career. This is special.”

Five months later, ahead of Friday’s night’s rematch between the top two seeds in the East last year, James again praised Toronto.

“It was an amazing atmosphere. These fans, they’re great,” James told reporters Friday morning. “For one, they’re representing a whole country. All of their sports teams, they take a lot of pride in everything they do. It almost (brings to) mind of a soccer stadium, a soccer field, because the fans they don’t ever stop chanting. They definitely have a great home-court advantage here.”

In the fourth quarter of Friday’s rematch, just the second game of the Raptors' schedule, it felt like that playoff atmosphere all over again with the crowd chanting, cheering and booing at will. Unfortunately for the Raptors, the end result was reminiscent too as they dropped the game 94-91 to make them 1-1 on this young season.

“I don’t think it matters, honestly,” Kyle Lowry said about having an intensely fought match so early in the season. “It’s a loss…we got to bounce back from it. We learn from it. Take it and not dwell on it too much, learn from it and understand what we got to do better and correct some things and go back to work on Monday.”

The Raptors had hovered close to the Cavaliers for much of the game, but never seemed to pose much of a threat early. At the half, the Raptors were down 10, trailing the Cavaliers 50-40. But in the fourth, they battled back to make things interesting. After coming within one several times, the Raptors finally drew even 86-86 late in the fourth — the first time since 0-0 — after Lowry drained a pair of free throws. They'd tie it again at 88-88 and 91-91

With the game knotted at 91, Cavaliers' Kyrie Irving drained a three-pointer with 44 seconds left.

With a few seconds to go, Patrick Patterson had a chance to tie it, but missed the three-pointer. A desperation 32-footer with 0.3 seconds to go from Lowry would miss, leaving the Raptors just shy of the comeback.

While they held the Cavaliers to under 100 points and 42 per cent shooting, the real issue for the Raptors was turnovers. Toronto had a combined 12 turnovers in the first 24 minutes, with the starters accounting for nine of those. By the end of the game, Raptors gave the ball away 18 times.

"There's no consolation prize, they beat us, but again we have to continue to believe in our offensive shots and those same shots we're going to make. We got to take care of the ball better, we can't have 18 turnovers because it's a jailbreak against this team," said coach Dwane Casey.

DeMar DeRozan, who led the team with 32 points, attributed the sloppy play to a matter of necessary early season fine-tuning.

“You know we’re still trying to find, you know, our exact rhythm. Trying to catch a rhythm especially playing with the young guys. Understanding where we all need to be, how we need to run it, understanding we all got to work to get open to help the passer out, you know, little things that we just got to continue to get better at.”

Those young guys include rookie Pascal Siakam, who made his second consecutive start on Friday, along with 21-year-old Jakob Poeltl, who perhaps inspired by his fellow rookie’s game one performance, had himself a fine game two.

“You got to give them credit,” DeRozan said on the young players. “Give the coaching staff credit, working with them all summer, getting them prepared for situations like this. Being able to play early in the season, that’s big to be able to gain that experience throughout the whole season and not just when some blowouts or we’re losing…they’re getting big time minutes.”

After playing just 18 seconds in the first, Poeltl was a factor in the second, chipping in seven points with seven rebounds and playing crucial minutes with James on the floor.

“I really like the way he came along, he gave us some energy where he was just trying to buy some minutes when they were small,” said Casey. “He came and did a good job, great hands. He has seven rebounds in 10 minutes which was very effective. He had such great hands, good feel, even on the offensive boards, he’s in there and can catch and finish a lot like Jonas Valanciunas. He gave us some valuable minutes.”

On the minutes, Poeltl said he was just glad to contribute.

“It’s a matter of being ready and taking every single opportunity you can get and I think I was ready today when he needed me to come in and play some back-up minutes for (Valanciunas),” he said. “I was there and I tried to do my best and he kept me in there for maybe a little longer than he expected.”

The defending champion Cavaliers are the team to chase in the East once again. It's early, of course, but if this night was any indication, the Raptors want another look at them come playoff time.

"It was a good, fun game to be a part of and unfortunately we came out on the bad side of it," Lowry said.