The Toronto Raptors need to decrease turnovers and get more scoring from Brandon Ingram on Thursday night in Game 3 of their Eastern Conference first-round playoff matchup against the visiting Cleveland Cavaliers.<\/p>\n
The Cavaliers lead the best-of-seven series 2-0 after their wire-to-wire 115-105 home victory Monday.<\/p>\n
The Cavaliers have defeated the Raptors in 12 consecutive playoff games to equal the NBA postseason record for a winning streak against one opponent.<\/p>\n
The Raptors, who are home for Games 3 and 4, committed 22 turnovers Monday for a total of 40 leading to 44 points over the first two games.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it really came down to turnovers,\u201d Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic said after Game 2. \u201cThey really cost us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ingram, who often was Toronto\u2019s top scorer in the regular season, had 17 points on 5-for-9 shooting in the first game, a 126-113 setback on Saturday, and seven points (3-for-15) on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m confident I won\u2019t miss all my shots and find a rhythm,\u201d Ingram said at practice on Wednesday. \u201cIt\u2019s tough when you feel like you\u2019re not doing your job. But I like to sit in disappointment for a little bit, see where I went wrong, and then get back into the fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need him to continue being aggressive in shooting,\u201d Rajakovic said. \u201cI\u2019ve got absolute support for him. He\u2019s going to make his shots.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cleveland forward Dean Wade scored eight total points over the two games, but he started both and is a key to the defense.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had it in the back of our minds to start Dean anyway because that five-man lineup has been so great for us all year,\u201d Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson told cleveland.com after Game 2. \u201cBut the more we watched film as a staff, we just kept saying, (Ingram) is the head of the snake, so we need to put our best perimeter defender on him.\u2019 That\u2019s Dean.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wade, in his seventh season, all with the Cavaliers, said he enjoys the defensive role<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes, it\u2019s a thankless job and I had to learn to love it,\u201d he said. \u201cBut, man, I love it. I really do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Toronto center Jakob Poeltl also has struggled. He had two points and four rebounds in only 9:26 on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe needs to be part of the solution for us,\u201d Rajakovic said Wednesday. \u201cHe needs to be more aggressive. He needs to dominate the glass. \u2026 He\u2019s going to be a big part of Game 3, and I believe he\u2019s going to perform really well.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Raptors were without Immanuel Quickley (strained right hamstring) for the first two games, but the injury is improving.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll see where he\u2019s at tomorrow,\u201d Rajakovic said.<\/p>\n
With Ingram struggling, Scottie Barnes led Toronto with 26 points on Monday and RJ Barrett added 22 points.<\/p>\n
Donovan Mitchell scored 30 points for Cleveland in Game 2, James Harden added 28 points and Evan Mobley scored 25 points.<\/p>\n
The February trade for Harden, an 11-time All-Star guard and the league MVP in 2018, has helped Mitchell.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, I can go stand on the wing,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cAnd like I always say, you have a guy that can create his own offense for himself and for others. \u2026 it just makes it tough (to defend).<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd there\u2019s also possessions where you can just go stand in the corner and allow him to be him. It\u2019s definitely better on the body, I\u2019ll tell you that. That\u2019s one thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Atkinson agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s part of it, right?\u201d the coach said. \u201cKeeping (Mitchell\u2019s) usage at a reasonable level. Donovan can get worn down. So again, these are reasons why you bring James Harden on board.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Toronto Raptors need to decrease turnovers and get more scoring from Brandon Ingram on Thursday night in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3772],"tags":[7,306,305,193,3846,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-716240","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-cavaliers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-cavaliers","10":"tag-cleveland","11":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","12":"tag-clevelandcavaliers","13":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116451142720378696","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}