The Cleveland Cavaliers got their butts handed to them on Thursday night.
While the Cleveland Browns were remaking their roster in the first round of the NFL Draft, the Cavaliers were remaking the storylines of their first-round series against the Toronto Raptors. After manhandling the Raps in the first two games, the Cavs were the ones being blown out in Game 3.
Toronto scored on 19-straight possessions spanning the third and fourth quarters to blow open a close game, and eventually used that 47-23 run to establish an insurmountable lead and win 126-104. Scottie Barnes, RJ Barrett and bench hero Jamison Battle all had awesome games to make the series competitive once more.
On Cleveland's side, three culprits in particular stand out for their awful play: the team's three All-Stars.
Donovan Mitchell was awful
Donovan Mitchell has seen every kind of defensive coverage over his career, so the Raptors loading up toward him when he had the ball was no surprise. Unfortunately for Cleveland, Mitchell didn't have any answers for Toronto's aggression and length.
After lighting up Toronto in the first two games, Mitchell had just 15 points and needed 16 shots attempts to get there; he didn't draw a single free-throw attempt despite the Raptors' aggressive coverage. He was often getting off of the ball early but then unable to create an advantage without the ball, when he tried anything at all.
He was let down a few times by teammates missing shots when he passed them the ball, but he wasn't generating a stream of high-percentage looks. He had only three assists matched by three turnovers, and his defense was largely atrocious. In the end, that translated to a -14 on the night, and left a gaping hole for another Cavalier to step up as the No. 1 option.
James Harden was abjectly terrible
James Harden sure tried to be the one to step up, and it was a disaster. As Harden is wont to do, he played well to start the playoffs and made Cleveland fans think he was going to shake off his demons of old. Not so fast.
It's hard to consider what was worse: Harden's ball security or his defense. He was a matador without the red cape, letting Raptors run amok without a care in the world like he was Samuel L. Jackson from Jurassic Park. He was back cut multiple times and had no defensive place to live as the Raptors exploited him again and again.
The turnovers might have been worse, however; Harden shot only 5-for-13 from the field, and often when he is shooting poorly he balances it out in the floor game, diming up teammates for open shots. Not on Thursday, as he had only four assists and a whopping eight turnovers. It was a nightmare.
Evan Mobley got punked
No whipping of the Cavaliers would be complete without mentioning Evan Mobley. The story from the first two games was how Mobley was a man and his rival Scottie Barnes was still a boy. Mobley dominated Barnes on both ends of the court and was Cleveland's best all-around player as they built a two-game lead.
He was far from that on Thursday, putting in his worst performance in a while on both ends of the court. On offense, Mobley shot just 4-for 13 from the field; that included 0-for-4 from deep and a more-concerning 4-for-9 from 2-point range. He could get to the rim against the Raptors' switching scheme.
On defense, Mobley got punked by undersized rookie big man Collin Murray-Boyles, who scored a tidy 22 points on 11-for-15 shooting, all from close to the basket. Barnes dropped 33 points on 11-for-17 from the field, and drew 10 free-throw attempts. Mobley is not the only one to blame for the Cavs' abysmal defense, but he is supposed to be an All-Defense anchor in the paint and he did very little to slow down Toronto.
Mitchell. Harden. Mobley. We could keep going. The Cavaliers got demolished in Game 3, and they will need all of their stars to play better to keep control of the series in Game 4.
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