Brandon Ingram and Scottie Barnes each scored 23 points Sunday afternoon and the Toronto Raptors held off the visiting Cleveland Cavaliers, 93-89, to even the best-of-seven Eastern Conference first-round playoff series at 2-2.
Game 5 of the series is Wednesday at Cleveland.
RJ Barrett added 18 points for the Raptors, and Collin Murray-Boyles scored 15 with 10 rebounds. Jakob Poeltl contributed 10 points.
Donovan Mitchell scored 12 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter for Cleveland. James Harden added 19 points but had seven turnovers. Jarrett Allen had three points and a game-high 15 rebounds, while Sam Merrill contributed 14 points.
Toronto led by two points entering the fourth quarter. Barrett’s 10-foot floater gave Toronto a six-point lead with 9:28 to play. But Mitchell drained a 3-pointer to tie the game at 74 and he made another 3-pointer that gave Cleveland a six-point lead with 5:14 left.
The lead reached eight on Mitchell’s two made free throws with 4:55 left. Ingram’s 3-pointer cut the lead to two with 2:36 to play but Merrill answered with a 3-pointer.
Barrett’s bank shot cut the margin to one with 49 seconds to go. After a Cleveland turnover, Barnes made two free throws to give Toronto a one-point lead. Mitchell missed a floater and Ingram grabbed the rebound with 23 seconds left. Barnes made two free throws before Mitchell missed a would-be game-tying 3-pointer.
Barrett made one free throw to bump the lead to four and Merrill hit a 22-foot jumper to cut the lead to two before Barnes sealed the game with 3.8 seconds left on two free throws.
Barnes added nine rebounds, six assists and three blocked shots to his stat line. He scored 10 fourth-quarter points, knocking down all six free throw attempts in the final 34.6 seconds.
“Scottie is going to be one of the best players in the league,” said Toronto coach Darko Rajakovic. “He’s already one of the best players in the league. But how much he cares about winning, it’s pushing him forward to whatever it takes to win a game. That’s what makes him so special, so I expect to see him continue to get better.”
Barnes was more focused on the team concept than any individual aspect of his own game.
“I think that’s what makes our bond just so tight, we’re just focusing on how we can grow,” he said after the game. “And we’re trying to do it together and finding ways of how we can communicate with each other each and every single day while we’re on the court, off the court, and just keep growing our bond.”
Cleveland led 17-14 after a sloppy first quarter.
Toronto was 0-for-14 from 3-point range before Barrett hit one with 8:31 remaining in the second quarter to cut the deficit to four. After Cleveland took an eight-point lead on Mitchell’s 3-pointer, Toronto finished the first half on a 10-0 run capped by Ingram’s 3-pointer to take a 38-36 lead into the break.
The first half featured poor shooting from both teams. Cleveland shot 33.3% (15 of 45) from the field and Toronto shot 27.8% (15 of 54).
“We had trouble scoring all game, but so did they,” said Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson. “So it was one of those types of games where it was tough to score the ball. Typical playoff game. I love our guys’ fight. We fought like crazy.
“They won the possession battle by 15. If you do the math, that’s really tough to overcome. We’ve got to turn that around in Game 5.”
Harden converted two free throws to give Cleveland an eight-point lead with 4:38 remaining in the third quarter. Toronto chipped away and took a one-point lead on Sandro Mamukelashvili’s layup with 45 seconds left. The Raptors led 60-58 after three quarters.
They would prevail despite misfiring on 26 of 30 attempts (13.3%) from behind the arc. But they did convert a dozen more free throws than the Cavs (27-15) and Cleveland only knocked down 15 of 23 (65.2%) from the stripe.
“It’s time for us to make an adjustment in the sense of just being aggressive and getting to the basket and taking shots and opportunities when we have them,” said Harden. “Low-scoring game today, it feels like nobody could really get it going. There’s an opportunity to tighten up on the little things and closing the quarters well even when we’re not shooting the ball well, eliminating the second-chance points, things you can control.”
–Field Level Media
