Winners and Losers From Cavaliers Game 4 Loss Against Raptors

In a physical contest on the road where the Cavaliers turned the ball over 17 times, Cleveland allowed the Toronto Raptors to tie the series back up in a 93-89 win.

This was a rough performance all around the Cavaliers. They couldn’t keep possession of the ball, they shot an awful 10/40 from deep, and for the really the first time this series, made the Raptors look like the clear better team.

Here are the winners and losers from the fourth game of the series.

Losers

Cleveland’s shooters

One of the biggest issues of the game for Cleveland was that they took 40 total triples as a team and could only hit them at a 25% rate.

Sam Merrill was the only Cav to hit more than 40% of his threes, going 3/7. James Harden and Donovan Mitchell combined to shoot 6/18, Max Strus went 0/5, Evan Mobley went 0/3.

The worst part is that every time Cleveland began to enter an offensive slump, they kept shooting threes to try and get out of it. Cleveland’s offense really got limited, and it was the biggest factor in costing them the game.

Donovan Mitchell’s late game mistakes

With the game on the line, Mitchell began to make some of his worst decisions of the season.

For starters he took an eight second violation while very clearly being double-teamed and forced into a wall. He had to pass the ball, but never even attempted one.

Then with Cleveland leading and needing to burn time, he rushed a driving floater and missed it, allowing Toronto to take the late lead. Finally, He took the game-deciding shot with 10 seconds on the clock still, forcing up a three while trying to bait a foul, missed it and lost the game. Refs hadn’t been giving calls like that all day, so it was a terrible decision to try and get the foul call late.

Mitchell needs to step it up, not as a scorer, but as a star. His decisions are hurting the team, and it’s time to be the superstar Cleveland knows he can be.

The front court

Cleveland won the first two games of the series behind the offensive control Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley had on the game. Plays were designed for Allen early to control the paint, allowing for lanes to open up for both Harden and Mitchell.

After that, Mobley was able to take control and be a real paint force.

Cleveland is getting away from that right now. Allen took just seven shots all game long, making one and earning two trips to the free throw line.

Mobley was weak today too, going 4/11 and pulling up some awful shots in the paint. He scored eight points.

This is losing basketball for Cleveland. The only reason to have two seven-footers is to control the paint, and they either can’t or won’t right now. Toronto had to bench their starting center early in the series because of how well Cleveland’s bigs were playing, but now Toronto’s bigs look better than Cleveland's.

Winners

Jaylon Tyson

After struggling early in the playoffs, this was Tyson’s best game of the series. He scored nine points, grabbed five boards, and played solid defense all day.

Tyson looked like his spot in the rotation was starting to get in jeopardy, but it’s been a nice recovery.

Now Keon Ellis is the odd man out of the rotation. He only played four minutes today, didn’t score and didn’t impact defensively. The Cavaliers faith in Tyson is getting restored, which is a great sign for his future.

The Raptors stars

This was Scottie Barnes’ and Brandon Ingram’s best game working together in the postseason so far. Both guys scored 23 points and carried the offensive load for a Raptors team that shot even worse than Cleveland (4/30 from three).

Barnes also showed some clutchness late as he sank the free throws that killed Cleveland’s late chances. Ingram had been criticized all series long for his inability to take over, but he’s doing that now.

Toronto is getting hot at the worst possible time for Cleveland. It’s time for Cleveland’s stars to recover, or this series could get out of hand fast.

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