{"id":723419,"date":"2026-05-02T03:18:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T03:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/723419\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T03:18:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T03:18:20","slug":"winners-and-losers-cavs-vs-raptors-game-6-comeback-falls-short","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/723419\/","title":{"rendered":"Winners and Losers: Cavs vs Raptors Game 6 \u2013 Comeback falls short"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> blew a chance at ending the series. Now they\u2019ll face the Toronto Raptors for a Game 7 in Cleveland.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s go over today\u2019s winners and losers.<\/p>\n

LOSER \u2013 Single Rims<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve seen enough. The NBA should invest in double rims, preferably ones that cause shots to rattle out more often.<\/p>\n

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Please, I\u2019m begging you.<\/p>\n

LOSER \u2013 Late Game Turnovers<\/p>\n

Jokes aside, the Cavs had a golden opportunity to end the series. A one-point lead with the shot clock off and the ball in their hands.<\/p>\n

They turned it over.<\/p>\n

I understand having Dennis Schroder<\/a> on the floor. He\u2019s your slipperiest player who can dash into the backcourt and guarantee the ball is put into play. From there, however, problems emerge.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s maybe use one of your timeouts before trying a jump pass? Especially when tossing a grenade to your team\u2019s worst free-throw shooter (who also happens to be straddling the sideline and is smothered by an elite defender).<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s not Schroder\u2019s fault that Mobley<\/a> lost the ball. But the process was questionable, and the results speak for themselves.<\/p>\n

Worse, this isn\u2019t even the first time the Cavs turned it over in a similar position. In Game 4, they choked away a late lead after Donovan Mitchell was forced into an eight-second violation.<\/p>\n

LOSER \u2013 The Backcourt (for three quarters)<\/p>\n

This has been the story of the series. The Cavs\u2019 backcourt, to varying degrees, has thrown a 2-0 lead down the drain with some truly abysmal road performances.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll start with the less egregious offender.<\/p>\n

If you could magically remove the possessions where James Harden<\/a> threw the ball straight to a Raptors defender, then I wouldn\u2019t have many complaints. Hell, even cutting that number in half would be pretty sweet. But even with Harden raising the floor by keeping the offense alive in the non-Mitchell minutes, his erradic turnovers have led directly to Toronto\u2019s fastbreaks, which have broken Cleveland\u2019s back.<\/p>\n

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The Raptors had 25 points off turnovers tonight. Harden finished with 4 turnovers.<\/p>\n

That pales in comparison to Donovan Mitchell. Who, by all accounts, has been awful since Game 2.<\/p>\n

You can afford to have your best player struggle in the playoffs. That\u2019s bound to happen for at least a game or two. But four out of six? That\u2019s downright diabolical. That\u2019s the stuff that causes you to rethink the future of your entire franchise.<\/p>\n

Mitchell was once again out of sorts. Totally thrown out of whack by the Raptors\u2019 swarming defense. He shot 2-10 from deep, mostly on desperation attempts \u2014 and failed to register an assist until the closing minutes despite commanding so much defensive attention.<\/p>\n

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These two would turn it around significantly. But the first three quarters are still important!<\/p>\n

WINNER \u2013 The Fourth Quarter Rally<\/p>\n

Alright, you don\u2019t get within seconds of closing out a series without doing at least a few things right.<\/p>\n

Mitchell turned it on in the fourth quarter. He finally broke free from Toronto\u2019s shackles and found a nice home for himself in the mid-range. His floater helped fuel the comeback while Cleveland\u2019s defense continued to ratchet up the intensity.<\/p>\n

The Cavs held the Raptors to just 12 points in the fourth quarter. That\u2019s as good as it gets defensively. If the Cavs could have been more effective on offense (only scoring 23 points themselves), they might have avoided overtime altogether.<\/p>\n

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This is where Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen<\/a> deserve their flowers.<\/p>\n

The two bigs came up huge throughout the rally. Mobley, in particular, scored 7 points in the clutch without missing a shot. He hit a corner three-pointer to cut into the lead, and then scored in isolation to force overtime in the final seconds.<\/p>\n

Allen wasn\u2019t as active in the scoring department but he applied maximum pressure on the glass. Allen grabbed contested board after contested board, helping the Cavs end possessions and extending them on the other side of the floor.<\/p>\n

For a minute, this felt like the moment Cleveland was going to break through and prove they\u2019re ready for the moment. Now they face elimination on Sunday.<\/p>\n

LOSER \u2013 Wasting your challenge<\/p>\n

WHY, KENNY? WHY?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!<\/p>\n

Sorry, I had to get this one out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cleveland Cavaliers blew a chance at ending the series. Now they\u2019ll face the Toronto Raptors for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":723420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3772],"tags":[7,306,305,193,3846,1024,864,560,1178,785,6,476],"class_list":["post-723419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-basketball","tag-cavaliers","tag-cleveland","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-clevelandcavaliers","tag-dennis-schroder","tag-donovan-mitchell","tag-james-harden","tag-jarrett-allen","tag-mobley","tag-nba","tag-toronto-raptors"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116502823093064746","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723419","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=723419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/723420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=723419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=723419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=723419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}