1 stud and 2 duds for Cavs in loss to Raptors on Thursday

It was a disappointing loss for the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday night when LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers came into town and got whatever they wanted offensively, en route to a 131-120 win. Even with Anthony Davis still out (he could be back soon), LeBron had a cool 38-point triple-double, and LA seemingly couldn’t miss in crucial situations.

So that one, with the Lakers’ inconsistencies, too, was far from a stellar performance by the Cavaliers. The Cavs did go 3-1 in their other games during their latest home stand, on a positive note, but on Thursday night, they needed to play much better overall in a pivotal game at the Toronto Raptors.

The Cavaliers and Raptors were separated by a game in the Eastern Conference standings coming into that last contest, with Cleveland at sixth and Toronto at seventh in the conference. Toronto would be a play-in squad had the season ended then, for further context. This latest Cavaliers game, and I’m not discounting others to come, had plenty going into it.

While the Cavs were 3-0 against the Raps going into Thursday this season, two of the games were really close, and a huge win came against a COVID-19-riddled Toronto team at the time, so that was part of it. The two guys seemingly that are #1 and #2 in the Rookie of the Year race in Evan Mobley and Scottie Barnes squaring off, at times against each other, was another storyline.

Unfortunately for Cleveland, they just couldn’t get shots to fall enough on Thursday here, and they were defeated handily by Toronto 117-104. If the two teams are essentially in a tiebreak situation at the end of the regular season, though, the Cavs would have that head-to-head advantage, on the plus side for them, but this one did sting. Cleveland needs to match Toronto from here, essentially.

That said, one performer solid for Cleveland offensively, which we’ll get into next, and then hit on the Cavaliers duds from Thursday’s loss.

This loss to the Raptors hurts, but one Cavs player did make his presence felt still, even with the team having inconsistencies.

As we alluded to, we’ll start with the Cavs stud from Thursday night’s L to the Raps.