Five Thoughts On The Cavaliers 108-105 Loss To The Toronto Raptors

The Cavaliers officially tipped off the season on Wednesday night with a 108-105 loss to the Toronto Raptors. If you were bored with preseason basketball, Wednesday night’s tilt more than satisfied your appetite for a real basketball.

The Cavs and Raptors duked it out in a good old-fashioned slugfest at Scotiabank Arena. There were fast breaks, dunks, blocks, and plenty of excitement. The two teams placed with a distinguished pace. In a game that featured a pair of eastern conference upstarts, it didn’t disappoint. There were 17 ties and 16 lead changes.

Toronto jumped out to an early lead and had doubled-up the Wine and Gold in the second quarter 22-11, but the Cavs used a 13-0 spurt in the second to reclaim the lead and outscored the Raptors 35-23 in the frame.

In the fourth quarter, the Raptors flipped the script outscoring the Cavs 32-21. The Cavs didn’t have a field goal over the final 5-plus minutes as the Raptors entered the final stanza staring at an eight-point deficit and exited with a three-point win.

Donovan Dominates

Donovan Mitchell had quite the debut in a Cavalier unform. Mitchell scored 31 points and dished out nine assists in 34 minutes. His 31 points was tied for the most by a player in his Cavs’ debut with Ron Brewer who scored 31 points against Milwaukee in 1981.

Mitchell started the game with his backcourt mate Darius Garland, but the pair only played a handful of minutes together. He checked out with 4:15 to play in the first quarter and didn’t re-enter until almost the 8-minute mark of the second.

Shortly afterwards, garland left the game with an eye injury, forcing Mitchell to shoulder the burden. Eighteen of Mitchell’s game-high 31 came in the second half as he replaced Garland as the primary ball handler.

Brilliant Bench

The Cavs bench outscored the Raptors reserves by a 33-18 margin. At one point in the second half, that was 23-7 in favor of the Wine and Gold. Cedi Osman paced the Cavs’ subs with 17 points and canned a few clutch threes.

Osman was a spark plug for the Cavs coming off the bench, with 13 of his 17 points coming in the second quarter, which helped the Wine and Gold catapult into the lead. Dean Wade, who is recovering from an ankle injury of his own, and Kevin Love each added eight points.

No Second Chances

Toronto out-rebounded the Cavaliers 41-38 and recorded 18 second chance points compared to just four for the Cavs. The Raptors finished last season second in the league in second-chance points, trailing only Memphis.

For a team that is built around its defense and features a pair of seven-footers anchoring the paint, coming up short on the rebounding end was disappointing to say the least. Especially against a Raptors lineup that ranges from 6’2”-6’5”.

Rebounding and second chance points should be a given with guys like Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley on the floor. Allen did pull down ten rebounds, and Mobley tallied six. But five Raptors had at least five rebounds led by Pascal Siakam with 11 boards.

Turnovers

The Cavs committed 17 turnovers against the Raptors Wednesday night. With Garland out of commission because of the eye injury, Mitchell handled most of the ball-handling duties. Raul Neto did see six minutes of playing time in Garland’s absence, but he was minus-eight in those six minutes.

The Raptors scored 25 points off Cavalier turnovers, with five of those giveaways coming in the fourth quarter.

Darius Leaves With An Injury

Garland left the game with an eye injury in the second quarter was ruled out for the remainder of the game.

After being inadvertently poked in the eye by Gary Trent Jr, Garland laid on the floor for several minutes, surrounded by teammates in front of the Toronto bench before heading down the tunnel to the locker room with the team's medical staff.

After the game, Bickerstaff gave a pretty graphic description of Garland’s injury but did not have a timeframe for any potential return.

“He’s got a laceration on the inside of his eyelid. That’s an uncomfortable spot with all the things he has to do,” Bickerstaff said. “His head and everything were cleared but he was cut and bleeding pretty bad from the inside of his eyelid.”

Bickerstaff had talked at length about staggering the minutes between Mitchell and Garland, but that plan went out the window once Garland went down.

What’s next?

The Cavaliers will practice in Toronto on Thursday before flying to Chicago to take on the Bulls Saturday night. Chicago won it’s season opener 116-108 over Miami Wednesday night.

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