Toronto Raptors Rediscover Claws; Throttle Cavs in Game 3

After two disappointing games on the road to open the Eastern Conference Finals, the Toronto Raptors bounced back in Game 3 to throttle the Cavs

After two disappointing, vanishing, disoriented games at Quicken Loans Arena, it appeared that those games were needed to happen for the Toronto Raptors to realize that they can’t continue playing that way if they want to make the most out of their first trip to the Eastern Conference Finals in franchise history.

And, their Game 3 victory, a 99-84 decision over the no-longer-streaking Cleveland Cavaliers at Air Canada Center is a great start for team that was fading away in this year’s playoffs. While LeBron James and company dominated these Raptors during the first two games in the series, Game 3 was the complete opposite of the first two games.

What went right this time?

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Okay. So let’s begin with dynamic duo of Klye Lowry and DeMar DeRozan. Both guards had been shooting blanks back in the first two games. And when we say blanks, they’re literally blanks. In Game 3, both DeRozan and Lowry scored better.

Their shooting percentage didn’t improve as both combined for 17-34 from the field, including 3-7 from the three-point line. How did the Raptors win despite the shooting percentages of both of their All-Stars? Simple. They made most of their opportunities, making 35 of their 75 shot attempts, roughly 44 percent from the field.

Toronto also shot better from downtown, making 37 percent of their attempts from beyond the three-point line, slightly better compared to the Cavs’ 34 percent. But what gave the Raptors the big W was their outstanding victory in the rebounding battle.

If you allow a team to grab 51 rebounds and you only grabbed 40, don’t expect to win like that. To make things better, Toronto out-rebounded the Cavs on the offensive end, 11-8. In fact, seven of those offensive rebounds came from Bismack Biyombo, who grabbed a total of 23 rebounds for the night.

Now, what went wrong for Cleveland this time around?

Kevin Love just made one of his nine shot attempts, a three-point shot. LeBron James, on the other hand, had a less stellar shooting display, making only 9 of his 17 attempts including going 1-5 from downtown.

And to make things worse, Kyrie Irving, who leads the Cavs in scoring during the playoffs, only had 11 points in Game 3, going 3-18 from the field including a miserable 1-6 shooting from the three-point line.

If anything, their Game 3 defeat at the hands of the much more inexperienced Toronto Raptors proved one thing: the Cavs are not perfect and they are not untouchable. Most importantly, perfect no more in the playoffs.

The Cavs still lead the series at 2-1 and we all know that they can respond to a loss in a big, big way. The Toronto Raptors can only celebrate this win for a while but the work is not yet done. Not until they can figure a way to repeat their Game 3 dominance.

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If they can’t win Game 4, there’s a possibility – a real one – that they will play their final home game of the year in Game 4 because we can expect another monstrous game from LeBron James the the series shifts back to Cleveland.

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