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Coming off a dominant 126-113 win in game 1 for the Cavs over the Raptors on Saturday, the Cavs came into Monday night, looking to continue playing good basketball and take a 2-0 series lead in their first round series vs the Toronto Raptors.
The Cavs got out fast, outscoring the Raptors 15-7 to start the first quarter, and didn’t look back.
The Raptors stayed around 7-10 points behind the Cavs all night, practically trading buckets all night, cutting the Cavs lead down to 3 points at one point but the Cavs offense was too much for the Raptors to overcome their early deficit.
Once again, the Cavs were led by Donovan Mitchell, who had another 30 point game, on 13-23 shooting, with only 1 free throw attempt. Mitchell has been absolutely fantastic in these first two games of this first round series, having his way offensively with 62 points through two games, shooting 47% from three. You can just see Mitchell is even more hungry this playoff compared to the last few.
James Harden was great again tonight, putting up 28 points on 9-14 shooting, also picking it up on the defensive side, collecting 5 steals.
The play of the game was definitely James Harden’s crossover three in the 2nd quarter off Scottie Barnes. Harden sent Barnes to the floor on a nasty crossover, and made the three on a lucky bounce where the ball bounced straight up to the shot clock and gently landed in the basket.
Video Credit: NBA on X
Raptors’ coach Darko Rajakovic was furious that Harden wasn’t called for a push off but the Raptors whole coaching staff and bench have complained the whole first 2 games about everything.
Evan Mobley had his 2nd good game in a row, scoring 25 on 11-13 shooting, also picking up 8 rebounds. Mobley had his way in the paint all night, and he’s really upped his game since being more aggressive in the paint rather than standing behind the 3 point line.
The Cavs big 3 combined for 83 of the Cavs’ 115 points, dominating the whole game.
The Cavs are back at it on Thursday for game 3 in Toronto, looking to take a 3-0 series lead. The Raptor crowd is going to be loud and give the Cavs a hard time, but the Cavs are experienced and are not going to crack. Tip-off is at 8:00 PM.
The Cavs must take at least 1 out of these 2 upcoming games in Toronto. Cleveland does not want to come back to Cleveland in a 2-2 Series.
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