East Conf. Semis - Game 3: Toronto Raptors 103-105 Cleveland Cavaliers - 5 Talking Points
Well, that was fun, wasn't it?
The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Toronto Raptors for the 9th time in a row in the playoffs to take a 3-0 lead in the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals, to all but book their place in the Conference Finals. Cleveland led for almost the entirety of the game, only for the Raptors to make a late push to tie it up late. Then, up stepped LeBron James with another dagger to the heart of the Raptors as the Cavs come away with a 105-103 win.
Here are the talking points:
#5 First half turnovers cost the Raptors
Throughout the regular season, the Raptors were pretty good at avoiding turnovers, with the 6th fewest in the league. That hasn't been the case in the playoffs and it was the same story in the first half. There have been questions about the Raptors in the playoffs and turnovers is undoubtedly an area they struggle with. Averaging just 13 a game in the Regular season, they've now had 17 or more turnovers in 4 of the 9 games thus far.
They turned it over 11 times in the 1st half, allowing the Cavs and James, in particular, to get out in transition and wreck havoc. They were down 15 at the half as a result. Toronto did a good job protecting the ball in the 2nd half and promptly came back into the game. One can only wonder if the outcome would have been different if they didn't have such a poor start.