The Cleveland Cavaliers gagged away a chance to take a commanding 3-1 lead. Their offense let them down as they dropped Game 4 to the Toronto Raptors 93-89.
The stats in the table below are taken from Cleaning the Glass. As a note, the percentiles are in comparison to other playoff games, which influences the sample size.
The Raptors had the lowest field-goal percentage (32%) from a postseason game winner since 1970, credit to Justin Russo. Toronto went just 31-97 from the field.
If you go before the three-point era, this was the fourth-lowest field-goal percentage from a team that won a playoff game, credit to Justin Thomas.
Jakob Poeltl is the only Raptor who had more makes than misses, going 4-7 from the field.
Toronto went just 4-30 from three (13.3%). Unsustainably hot outside shooting carried the Raptors to the Game 3 victory. Their regression to the mean was harsh as they couldn’t buy a basket from deep.
The Raptors had 10 more shot attempts than the Cavs. This is due to Cleveland losing the turnover and offensive rebounding battle. In a game where neither team could establish an offensive rhythm, the one that had more chances wound up the winner.
Toronto had 21 offensive rebounds, grabbing 40% of their misses (92nd percentile). This led to the Raptors outscoring Cleveland 19-7 on second-chance points.
Cleveland turned it over 18 times compared to Toronto’s 12. The Raptors won the points-off-turnovers battle 17-7.
The Cavs shot an abysmal 15-23 from the line (65.2%). On a day they couldn’t generate any offense, they also couldn’t convert the freebies that they got. Jarrett Allen struggled most, going 1-4.
James Harden turned it over seven times. This was the second time in as many games he’s had more turnovers than field goals (six).
Donovan Mitchell scored 20 or fewer points for the second game in a row. He finished with 20 points on 6-24 shooting (25%). In the regular season, the Cavs were 7-11 when he played and scored 21 or fewer points and 25-9 when he scored 30 or more. In the playoffs, the Cavs won both games he’s scored at least 30 and have lost both games he’s registered fewer than 21.
Mitchell went 0-4 in shots at the rim and 2-10 in shots in the paint overall.
Only 28% of the Cavs’ shots came at the rim (33rd percentile). Getting to the basket is still the most efficient way to score. The Raptors have kept Cleveland from getting there. The Cavs went just 13-22 (59%) on shots in the restricted area.
Cleveland registered just an 80 half-court offensive rating (9th percentile). The Cavs were outstanding in the half-court since the Harden trade in the regular season. That didn’t carry over to Game 4 as they couldn’t generate any consistent offense with their stagnant sets.
The Cavs were outscored 17-11 in the final five minutes. The Cavs went just 2-10 from the field with a turnover in that span. Sam Merrill accounted for both field goals.
Collin Murray-Boyles outscored Cleveland’s front-court 15 to 11, credit to NBACentral. The Cavs are paying $66.3 million for their starting front-court duo. Murray-Boyles is making 10% of that.
Allen, with five points, failed to register double-digit points for the seventh time in 22 playoff games with the Cavs. Allen’s aggression and activity have consistently fallen off in the postseason. He came into this game averaging 12.8 points per playoff game with the Cavs after averaging 14.8 across six regular seasons with the team.
Evan Mobley, with eight points, failed to register double-digit scoring in a playoff game for the fifth time in his career.
The Cavs won the 28 minutes Dean Wade was on the court by 11 and lost the 20 he sat by 16. Wade wasn’t great offensively in this game, but he was still a net positive because of his defense on Scottie Barnes and Brandon Ingram. The fact that the Cavs have struggled in the minutes without him isn’t surprising because they have no one capable of guarding Toronto’s wings. The lack of playable wings continues to hurt the Cavs in the playoffs.