CLEVELAND: On several fronts, Monday night’s performance against the Toronto Raptors felt like a step forward for the Cavaliers.
Kyrie Irving’s playoff career-high 10 assists and 26 as a team on 39 field goals.
Four turnovers through three quarters.
Hitting 24-of-29 from the free-throw line, including Tristan Thompson making 5-of-6 as the Raptors resorted to intentionally hacking him in the second half.
Withstanding Raptors’ runs in the second and third quarters.
Thirteen Raptors points in the first half coming off the fast break, three in the second half.
A Cavs pace that Raptors coach Dwane Casey deemed “half a step quicker” after the game, but amended to better “anticipation” on Tuesday.
The Cavs managed a first-round sweep of the Indiana Pacers despite some underwhelming efforts from LeBron James’ supporting cast. But in a 116-105 victory over the Raptors in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals at Quicken Loans Arena, there was a sense that the injury-plagued and inconsistent Cavs might finally be putting it all together.
“It feels like we’re trending in the right direction and we have to keep it up,” Kevin Love said.
“When the ball is moving and guys are being aggressive, there is no question about the moves guys are making or shots we are taking. We’re all just trusting one another and the basketball gods end up being in our favor,” Irving said. “We’re playing at an incredibly high level. Obviously there are some things that we can still get better at, but we’re getting there.”
As his mind clicked through uncontested shots by P.J. Tucker, Serge Ibaka and Norman Powell, James wouldn’t go too far with his praise.
“I’m OK with where we’re headed. I’m not pleased. I’m not satisfied. It’s still so early,” James said. “But at the end of the day I feel like we’re making progress towards being a team that we want to become and tonight was another step in the right direction.”
After going 10-14 in March and finishing the regular season with four consecutive losses, there was a question whether there was enough time for the Cavs to find themselves. It seemed a stretch to think that could happen once the playoffs began.
But if Monday truly was an indication of what the Cavs can still become, their week off after the first round will prove crucial. Although coach Tyronn Lue mixed in heavy cardio work, James said the Cavs got more practice time during the break than they did the entire month of March, when they played 12 out of 17 games on the road.
“I think we had five days of practice and we did everything from game planning when we knew who we were going to play, we worked our habits defensively. We worked our habits offensively. Got some more continuity things put together. We got some great conditioning in. It definitely helped us out a lot,” James said.
But some of the Cavs’ improvements in Game 1 against the Raptors came from better focus and attention to detail. In Lue’s mind, the most important may have been cutting down turnovers.
After the Cavs’ historic comeback from a 25-point halftime deficit in Game 3 at Indiana, Lue marveled that the Cavs had no turnovers in the third and fourth quarters. Although the Cavs lost 12 on Monday, eight came in the fourth quarter, three after the starters had been lifted.
“Only having four turnovers through the first three quarters was great. When we take care of the basketball and we get back and get our defense set, we’re better defensively,” Lue said.
James also pointed to the Cavs’ assists, amplified because they recorded only 11, none in the first quarter, in Game 4 against the Pacers.
“Anytime we get 25-plus assists — we had 26 assists on 39 field goals, that’s very efficient. Very, very efficient. And we only had 12 turnovers, and I think we had four or five of them late in the game,” James said. “That lets me know that we’re playing very consistent ball. We’re doing what we need to do. The game plan our coaching staff is giving us, we executed it. That’s letting me know we’re moving in the right direction. We just keep doing that every game and we’ll be a very good team.”
The Cavs know the Raptors will make adjustments. At practice Tuesday, Casey told reporters he wants tighter defense, the same thing Pacers coach Nate McMillan stressed, along with a faster gear and more of a score-first mentality. He hopes the latter will keep the Raptors from obsessing over how to defend the Cavs’ Big Three.
But the Cavs left the Q Monday feeling like it may have been the best of their five playoff games.
“Yeah. Probably beginning to end,” Love said. “For most of 48 minutes we did our jobs and no matter the outcome, we made the right play and the right decision in every case.”
LeBron paying fine
Dahntay Jones’ two technical fouls and ejection with 18.7 seconds left Monday will cost the Cavs veteran $6,000 in league fines. But for the second year, James said he will pay for Jones’ infractions.
According to ESPN.com, Jones’ season salary is $9,127, prorated because he didn’t sign until April 12.
Jones and the Raptors’ Norman Powell started trash talking after a Jones dunk, with both called for double technicals. Jones was suspended for a game in the Eastern Conference finals last year against the Raptors, but his fine was only $80, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst.
James paid that one and said he will do the same this time, despite the steeper tab.
“I said I was going to pay the fine before I even knew what it was. It didn’t matter,” James said of 2016. “I told him tonight, ‘Listen, Dahntay, now enough is enough. Stop getting kicked out against Toronto all the time. I’m gonna stop paying your damn fines.’ But, yeah, he don’t have to worry about it. He’s good.”
Calling KG
Lue said in ESPN’s “NBA Lockdown” podcast with Dave McMenamin that the Cavs called Kevin Garnett and asked if he would come out of retirement and join them after Andrew Bogut broke his leg on March 6.
Garnett, 40, working as a consultant with the Clippers and Bucks, spent four seasons with Lue when he was an assistant with the Boston Celtics starting in 2009-10.
“I was like, ‘Man, you should come back and play for me,’ ” Lue told McMenamin of his conversation with Garnett. “He was like, ‘Man, you all have a lot going on over there.’ That was before we hit our stride like we’re playing well now. He was like, ‘If you and [James] Posey were still playing, I would come. But y’all are coaching and y’all are going through what you’re going through. I’m going to sit this one out.’ I said, ‘OK. We’ll call you next year.’ ”
Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her blog at www.ohio.com/marla. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ.