Three takeaways from Toronto Raptors humiliating loss to Cavaliers

In what was scheduled as an easy win, the Toronto Raptors lost to the lowly Cleveland Cavaliers. What went wrong in the loss? Here are my three takeaways.

Umm, what just happened? The second place Toronto Raptors faced off against the Cleveland Cavaliers in a game that should have been an easy win. Except it wasn’t. The Cavaliers didn’t get the “just quit” memo and instead came out with a fire, leading by four at the half.

Once the second half came along, we all expected the Raptors to snap out of it, and finally beat the brakes off the Cavaliers. That didn’t happen either. Cleveland won the third quarter by 10 points and ended up blowing out the Raptors by 25 points!

Sure, Toronto was on the back half of a road back-to-back, and Cleveland was hot from three. It doesn’t matter. When there are more than 30 games between you and your opponent in the standings, you are expected to win that game.

What did we learn from the loss? More than a few things.

See ya Serge

For all the fans clamoring for Marc Gasol to start, wanting to see Pascal Siakam at center lineups, or hoping to see more Chris Boucher, Serge Ibaka made your dreams come true. For the fans… maybe that’s why Serge was so eager to throw down.

My guess is it’s a 3-4 game suspension. After Marquese Chriss talked smack, Ibaka did initiate the altercation, shoving Chris into the stanchion from behind. Both players threw but did not land any punches, an important line of distinction when the ruling comes down from Silver’s office.

As for the fight itself…. it was fine. It wasn’t a fake “HOLD ME BACK” fight, but no one landed anything and the worst that happened was some back and forth shoving. It’s understandable why Chriss would talk some garbage after Ibaka clearly flopped. It’s understandable why Ibaka wouldn’t allow that to fly. In the end, I’m not going to clutch my pearls over two adults almost fighting.

What Ibaka did was understandable. That doesn’t make it smart. He cost himself quite a bit of money, and the Raptors will be without him for the near future.

Turnovers

The Raptors have a bit of a turnover problem. As of late, a problem seems to be getting worse. Since February 13th (the day Jeremy Lin was signed), Toronto has the 9th highest turnover rate in the NBA. Only a couple of successful teams have coughed it over more.

The past two games, they’ve lost the turnover battle 39-25. 39 turnovers in two games! That’s terrible. Toronto has a few high turnover players with Kyle Lowry, Jeremy Lin, and Norman Powell.

That’s okay. You can turn it over and still be successful.  However, you need to be conscious of it all times. Because when it’s this bad, you end up losing to teams like the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Young Bull

Collin Sexton has been terrible this year, but you wouldn’t have known it last night. Against the Raptors, the rookie point guard nicknamed “Young Bull” went off for 28 points on 10-18 shooting with five assists.

He hit threes, he attacked the rim, he embarrassed the Raptors defense. Sexton has some tools, even if it’s not great right now.  Cleveland somehow manages to win the lottery once every three years, so it will be fun to watch him alongside Zion Williamson next season.