The Cleveland Cavaliers feel they passed the toughness test in winning Game 5 at home.
The next step is to show the same grit on the road Friday night in Game 6 against the Toronto Raptors and clinch the Eastern Conference first-round playoff series.
Cleveland took a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series with a 125-120 comeback win on Wednesday.
“We kind of passed that mental toughness test,” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said. “Now the big one is like, ‘Can you go and beat this team on the road? Can we go in there and go take this,’ because we haven’t shown we can yet.”
After convincingly winning the first two games at home, the Cavaliers could not cope with the Raptors’ aggressiveness in Games 3 and 4 at Toronto.
The Raptors carried that momentum into Game 5 and led by 12 in the first quarter. They led again by 12 in the first minute of the third quarter before Cleveland rallied and won with a 25-17 fourth-quarter advantage.
“I thought this was a step for us from a kind of mental toughness point of view,” Atkinson said. “It was not pretty. We go down by 12, the crowd’s nervous, everybody’s nervous, but I thought we showed good poise and resiliency.”
After committing 10 turnovers in the first half, Cleveland limited them to four in the third quarter and one in the fourth.
The ballhandling of guard Dennis Schroder, who scored 13 of his 19 points in the second half, was a factor in the improvement. After playing 4:55 in the first half, Schroder played 16:19 in the second; he was on the court for all 12 minutes of the fourth quarter.
Cleveland made a total of 40 turnovers in the two games in Toronto.
“For us, it’s winning the possession game; it really comes down to that,” Atkinson said. “The two games in Toronto we were minus-21 in the possession game, which statistically it’s really hard to win games. Our mentality going in there is we’ve got to be able to rebound the ball, we’ve got to take care of it. Otherwise, we’ll be back here for Game 7.”
Toronto lost forward Brandon Ingram on Wednesday with right heel inflammation after he played only 11:22. He is listed as questionable for Game 6.
Toronto guard Immanuel Quickley is out for the entire series with a hamstring strain, and Scottie Barnes, who had 17 points and 11 assists, was hobbled by a bruised thigh after being bumped on a second-quarter drive.
“Obviously, it had some effect,” Barnes said. “Couldn’t play with the same pace that I was trying to play with, just having a little limp out there.”
“I think we should be encouraged with all that happening and we were still in position to win the game,” said RJ Barrett, who had 25 points and 12 rebounds. “That’s a testament to everybody on our team. We’ve always had a next-man-up mentality.”
Ingram’s presence is important. He’s averaged 12 points in five playoff games after leading the team with a 21.5 scoring clip in the regular season.
“The way they guard him, his shot-making ability,” Barnes said. “When he’s out there on the floor, he makes big plays for us. We need him out there.”
Toronto coach Darko Rajakovic said the Raptors indeed have their “back against the wall.”
“We have 48 hours to find a physical and mental way,” Rajakovic said. “They’re going to try to close the series and we’re going to do everything possible, find enough healthy guys, and compete until the last second. I’m hopeful we’re going to have guys available.”
