{"id":717127,"date":"2026-04-24T12:39:46","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T12:39:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/717127\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T12:39:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T12:39:46","slug":"scottie-barnes-rj-barrett-lead-as-toronto-raptors-beat-cleveland-cavaliers-in-game-3-trail-series-2-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/717127\/","title":{"rendered":"Scottie Barnes, RJ Barrett lead as Toronto Raptors beat Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 3, trail series 2-1"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2014 Scottie Barnes<\/a> had a double-double as the Toronto Raptors<\/a> routed the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> 126-104 on Thursday in Game 3 of their first-round NBA playoff series.<\/p>\n

Cleveland leads the best-of-seven series 2-1.<\/p>\n

Barnes scored a career playoff high 33 points, including 13 in the third quarter, adding 11 assists and five rebounds in a masterful performance on both ends of the court.<\/p>\n

RJ Barrett<\/a> of Mississauga, Ont., also hit a career playoff high with 33 points, adding five rebounds and five assists. He went 6 for 8 from three-point range.<\/p>\n

Backup centre Collin Murray-Boyles<\/a> had 22 points, the most ever by a Raptors rookie in a playoff game. He pulled down eight boards.<\/p>\n

James Harden<\/a> led the Cavaliers with 18 points, four rebounds and four assists. Reserve swingman Max Strus<\/a> had 15 points on four three-pointers and Evan Mobley<\/a> had 15 points, seven assists and six rebounds.<\/p>\n

Game 4 is back at Scotiabank Arena on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Raptors point guard Immanuel Quickley<\/a> was held out for the third consecutive game as he recovers from a strained right hamstring. Ja\u2019Kobe Walter started in his stead, getting two rebounds in 26 minutes of play.<\/p>\n

Barrett had 11 points in the first quarter, making all three of his three-point attempts in the period. Barnes added 10 as Toronto held a 31-25 lead after 12 minutes, even as Walter and starting centre Jakob Poeltl<\/a> were without any points.<\/p>\n

It was also the first lead the Raptors had held in the series since Game 1\u2019s first quarter.<\/p>\n

Strus made a big difference for Cleveland in the second quarter, making three of five three-pointers and a total of 12 points as the Cavaliers tied it 54-54 by intermission.<\/p>\n

Toronto\u2019s shooting cooled off in the second quarter, going from 70.6 per cent on field-goal attempts and making all five of its three-pointers in the first quarter to 40.9 per cent on field goals and 1 for 5 on threes.<\/p>\n

Barnes hit a 16-foot jumpshot as time expired in the third for an 83-81 lead. It was his 31st point of the game, having already surpassed his playoff high earlier in the quarter.<\/p>\n

It was Murray-Boyles\u2019s period, however. He had six points, three rebounds, a block and a steal in a little over six minutes of play time.<\/p>\n

Barrett drilled a 23-foot three-pointer with 5:41 left in the game to cap a tidy 7-3 run that put the Raptors ahead by 11, their biggest lead of the game to that point. Barrett skipped to centre court, flexing, as Cleveland called a timeout to regroup.<\/p>\n

The three-pointer gave Toronto a 96.8-per cent likelihood of winning the game.<\/p>\n

The Cavaliers\u2019 timeout didn\u2019t slow the Raptors\u2019 momentum, as they reeled off an 8-2 run when play resumed for a 17-point lead.<\/p>\n

Toronto didn\u2019t look back after that, guaranteeing the series would go at least five games.<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 23, 2026.<\/p>\n

John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 Scottie Barnes had a double-double as the Toronto Raptors routed the Cleveland Cavaliers 126-104 on Thursday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3772],"tags":[7,306,305,193,58725,3846,6,50581,50120,47315],"class_list":{"0":"post-717127","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-cleveland-cavaliers-sports-basketball-team-team-statscom-5","13":"tag-clevelandcavaliers","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-rj-barrett-sports-basketball-player-player-statscom-1132031","16":"tag-scottie-barnes-sports-basketball-player-player-statscom-1251666","17":"tag-toronto-raptors-sports-basketball-team-team-statscom-28"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116459730588691164","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717127","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=717127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}