Raptors hurt the Cavs playoff chances with their third win against them this season

The Raptors played active basketball with their hands on almost every live ball in the game they went after rebounds and if they were unable to catch it they would tip the ball so that another Raptor player had a chance to get to it and more often than not the Raptors got to the rebound as they out rebounded the Cavs 45-34 in the game. it was simply about heart and effort and the Raptors brought while the Cavs who were in one of their biggest games post LBJ as they are in the thick of the playoff hunt and yes the lower seeds in the east will go into the playoffs with more losses than wins and tonight after the Raptors tightened up the D midway through the second quarter they were not putting out the effort in the game as they had 22 of their first 33 points in the paint and then 16 of their last 55 points were in the paint. The Cavs who came into the game shooting top 10 from beyond the arc were 3 of 15 from beyond the arc while the Raptors who shot 50% from the floor shot 8 of 19 from beyond the arc but this was helped by their passing (25 assist) as most threes were wide open shot with maybe Cav jumping towards them as they let their shot go. The Raptors were made it hard for the Cavs to get easy points as they contested every shot and were more willing to make them earn their points at the line with hard fouls than get a dunk and after the first quarter having 6 turnovers and two offensive charging fouls against them they ended up with only 14 turnovers in the game.

The game came down to the Raptors up 6 with 65 seconds left in the game and Jared Bayless who had 20 in the game missed a jumper and the ball goes off the front of the rim am and is bouncing on the court and Barbosa who had 17 points in the game jumps on the floor first and graps his only rebound of the game and calls timeout at the same time. Then coming out of the timeout the Raptors put the ball into the hands of Andrea Bargnani who misses a long jumper but because there are no Cavs in position to get the rebound Bargnani goes in and gets his 7th and final rebound and slams it home for his last 2 of his 19 points in the game as the Raptors win 96-88 and are 3 and 0 so far against the Cavs this season.

Kyle Irving had a tough night shooting 5 of 17 and had 5 points going into the second half and ended with 14 for the Cavs who were lead Antawn Jamison who had 20 (8 of 18 from the floor) while Ramon Sessions (6 of 9 from the floor) and Alonzo Gee (7 of 7 from the line) both had 16 points and lived in the paint and had a lot of the Cavs 38 points in the paint.

So the Raptors are a game better than last season through 42 games with 14 wins and more wins on the road

Tom Mehegan