The Toronto Raptors understand they must be ready for anything Sunday afternoon when they attempt to even their Eastern Conference first-round series with the visiting Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Cavaliers hold a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series after the Raptors’ 126-104 home victory in Game 3 on Thursday.
“Every game in this series so far, it was different,” Toronto coach Darko Rajakovic said. “So every game we’ve got to expect the unexpected. We’ve got to be ready for it. We’ve got to have some counters and some ideas how we want to react in those moments. And most importantly, we’ve got to stay together throughout the whole 48 minutes.”
The Raptors ran away from the Cavaliers with a 43-23 margin in the fourth quarter. The surge was ignited by reserve Jamison Battle, who scored all 14 of his points in the fourth quarter by going 5-for-5 from the floor — including 4-for-4 from 3-point range.
The Cavaliers sat through this movie before. Battle sank all seven of his shots from the floor — including six from 3-point range — during his 20-point performance in Toronto’s 112-101 victory on Oct. 31 at Cleveland.
“This is not the first time to see Jamison Battle perform this way,” Rajakovic said. “Ultimate professional, always keeping himself ready, puts an enormous amount of work in every single day.”
“He’s a shooter,” said Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell, who was held to 15 points Thursday after scoring 62 in the first two games.
“He gets open, and once you see one go in, it goes from there, right? So credit to him, credit to them. But, you know, we’ve got to be better, and we’ll fix it.”
While Mitchell and James Harden (18 points) encountered some trouble, the Raptors received 33 points each from Scottie Barnes and RJ Barrett, both career playoff bests. Reserve Collin Murray-Boyles added 22 points, which set the team’s postseason record for a rookie.
Jamal Shead had five of Toronto’s 11 steals that contributed to Cleveland’s 22 turnovers leading to 23 points.
Harden committed eight turnovers in Game 3.
“For me, I’ve got to be better,” Harden said. “I think all of us. Just turning the basketball over, giving them just easy points off transition opportunities. The first two games we did a good job. Give them credit, like they had a different game plan and were causing turnovers.”
“We didn’t do the dirty work that’s necessary to win on the road,” said Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson.
The Raptors played with more energy in Game 3, yet the Cavaliers trailed by only two points entering the fourth quarter.
“The force was just way on their side, their ability to kind of be the more aggressive team,” Atkinson said. “Just kind of that simple.
“We’ll clean up the tactical things in terms of doing the dirty work, stuff we talked about.
“You know, the defense has got to be better, you know, in the fourth quarter, we started missing coverages, got backdoored, lost our focus. …we could not get a stop, then Battle came in and really gave them a boost. So this is the playoffs. This is what it’s like.”
The Raptors said on Friday that Immanuel Quickley has been ruled out for the rest of the series. Toronto’s starting point guard missed the first three games of the series, and the team said he re-injured his right hamstring during his rehabilitation.
