CLEVELAND, Ohio – Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff summed up his team’s performance in a 135-115 loss to the Toronto Raptors Saturday night with one word: disappointing.
“You can’t afford to play the way we played in the first half and expect a different result.
With an expanded post-season format, seeds 7-10 making a play-in round, the Cavaliers had a prime target on their home floor and a chance to make up games. Toronto currently holds the 11th seed, right outside of the playoff bubble.
“It was extremely disappointing to come out and play the way we played,” Bickerstaff said. “We didn’t give ourselves a chance.”
The Raptors connected on their first 12 shots. Their first miss didn’t come until 3:38 of the fourth quarter. The exclamation point on a 47-point barrage, the most surrendered in a quarter in franchise history, came when Yunta Wantanabe connected on a three-point buzzer beater to bring an agonizing first 12 minutes to a close.
“It was embarrassing what took place in the first half tonight,” said guard Collin Sexton. “We just came out soft. They got whatever they wanted.”
The Cavaliers shot just 31.8 percent from the field (7-of-22), while Toronto is shot 85 percent (17-of-20).
The barrage continued in the second quarter. Gary Trent Jr. netted 20 of his career-high 44 points in the second. The Wine and Gold trailed by as many as 38 points and trailed 87-54 at the half.
“I thought our defense was what led to the struggles. You get demoralized when you give up 47 points in a quarter. And then follow it up with a 40-point defensive effort,” Bickerstaff said. “We scored 54 points at the half, which is enough. Our defense completely let us down tonight.”
Making matters worse, the Raptors were without Kyle Lowry, Fred VanVleet and Pascal Siakam.
Had the Cavaliers not gotten off to such a clunky start, the outcome may have been different. The Cavs outscored the Raptors 29-13 in the third quarter and eventually chiseled the deficit down to 12 points in the fourth quarter.
“They were who we’ve been more times than not. They are a scrappy group. They are together. They do fight,” Bickerstaff said. “But you just can’t survive the way we played in the first half, regardless of what you do in the second half. You have to be absolutely perfect.”
Adding injury to insult, Darius Garland left the game in the final minutes with an apparent ankle injury. Garland finished his night with 19 points. Kevin Love added 18 points in his fifth game back from an injury of his own.
Sexton led the Cavaliers with 29 points.
Coming into Saturday night’s game, the Cavaliers scored back-to-back 20-point road wins and had a chance to develop some consistency with their level of play.
“If you look at our history, we have to do a better job of handling what we might think of as success,” Bickerstaff said. “We’ve had games where we’ve played well and won recently. To me what we took for granted was who we have to be in order to play and win and be competitive.”