*Recap generator glitchy, we’re rolling with the raw version of QR tonight.
DeMarre Carroll: C+
He had an awful shooting night, missing a lot of open looks. Great energy though, and defensively he did a nice job on LeBron when posted up, and dared him to shoot on the perimeter.
DeMar DeRozan: A+
Just put the team on his back in a really remarkable way. His offense tonight was a nice bag of drives and pull-up jumpers – both his bread and butter. He’s become an absolute assassin in the mid-range.
Kyle Lowry: A+
This was a superstar performance if I’ve ever seen one. Like DeRozan, he stepped up in an immense way, and he was hitting threes like they were layups. Also, just hit big shots, in particular a great drive to the rim with 22.5 seconds left on the clock.
Kyle Lowry with a long three pointer off the catch. https://t.co/fwGfvNjrnO
— RealGM (@RealGM) May 24, 2016
Luis Scola: B
He was fine. Zero points in 14 minutes, but here’s an underrated thing: he’s played really nice defence on Kevin Love.
Bismack Biyombo: A+
Bismack for president, prime minister, mvp, commissioner, and anything else with a prominent title.
He altered shots, that’s true, but he also came up with a couple crazy blocks – including one emphatic rejection on Kevin Love, and one clean (wrongly called foul) on LeBron. The latter was one of the best blocks I’ve ever seen in an NBA game.
Biyombo should have wagged his finger at the ref. How can you take away this beautiful play?https://t.co/ifLmAmXo3W
— Raptors Republic (@raptorsrepublic) May 24, 2016
No Soup For You Kevin Love! 1 week! https://t.co/IKuANrdZLK
— BBALLBREAKDOWN (@bballbreakdown) May 24, 2016
On, and this was a treat:
Wut. How. https://t.co/d8xlDS5FaE
— BBALLBREAKDOWN (@bballbreakdown) May 24, 2016
Note, he struggled a bit in the fourth due to Cleveland’s 5-out lineup, but that’s not on him (more under Dwane Casey).
Patrick Patterson: A-
Denied entry passes defensively, brought energy all around, did great passing out of double teams. Solid.
Terrence Ross: B
Surprisingly short leash, but he hit a three and had a nice steal which led to a transition dunk in 7 minutes.
Cory Joseph: B+
Did a nice job defensively on Dellavedova (whatever) and Kyrie Irving, the latter hit some tough shots over CoJo despite some good defense.
James Johnson: B
In 6 minutes, he played sound man-to-man D on LeBron and got to the rim with a nice drive.
Dwane Casey: A-
That was a crazy-tight rotation with heavy minutes for the starters, particularly Kyle Lowry (44). But hey, this was a must-win game and this is the time to do it. I need to rewatch that fourth quarter though to really understand what was going on. I was baffled at how long he let the Cavs roast the Raptors offensively on the same play. They pulled Biyombo out on the perimeter to guard Frye and either A) Got Frye a great look or; B) Got it inside to Jefferson to take advantage of the lack of rim protection.
—
A few things we saw..
1) That was best atmosphere in ACC history, right? Just incredible stuff from the fans.
2) Can’t emphasize this enough: When the all-stars step up, they can break some backs. Lowry and DeRozan were unstoppable tonight. They were hitting shots that I’ve seen Raptor killers like Joe Johnson and Paul Pierce induce nightmares in us over the past few years. Huge performance from the backcourt, really impressive.
3) The Cavs opened the third quarter on an 11-0 run – Raptors responded. Then the Cavs opened the fourth on a 8-0 run – the Raptors responded again. Huge character shown. The Raptors are alive, and they look like their regular season selves, which is the best possible scenario heading back to Cleveland.
