The Toronto Raptors’ recent stretch has been messy, but the Cleveland Cavaliers’ problems look a lot more serious.
Toronto has gone 2-2 over its last four games since Kawhi Leonard was sidelined, and that record probably would have been 1-3 if Scottie Barnes hadn’t taken over in the fourth quarter Monday night. Even with the uneven results, the Raptors’ issues have been more about half-court struggles, too many bad fouls and sloppy execution than anything that feels fatal.
Cleveland, meanwhile, is dealing with a different kind of concern. The Cavaliers are also 4-3, but they’ve already coughed up three leads this season, and the bigger issue is what those collapses say about them. They don’t seem to have the killer instinct championship-level teams usually show.
That showed up again Monday night in a loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, who got a 43-point night from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Donovan Mitchell once again didn’t deliver in a big moment, and Cleveland’s frontcourt faded in the second half, just like it has at other times.
One of those blown leads came in a season-opening loss to the 76ers, a 29-point collapse that can be brushed off a bit because it was the first game of the year. Another came Monday against OKC, though that one was only a five-point lead in a game that went back and forth.
The one that really stands out is the 15-point lead Cleveland wasted against the Atlanta Hawks.
That game felt like a snapshot of the Cavaliers as a whole. They opened fast and jumped out to a 31-16 lead, but once Atlanta started rolling in the second quarter, Cleveland had no real answer.
The Hawks punched back hard, and the Cavaliers looked stunned. Mitchell, Evan Mobley, James Harden and head coach Kenny Atkinson all seemed shell-shocked, and nobody on the bench had a solution.
That’s the biggest concern with Cleveland: when adversity hits, the group seems to fold. And even when it does find a response, it drains so much energy that the finish still slips away.
The Raptors, for all their flaws in Los Angeles over the last two games, at least kept fighting the entire way and never quit.
There’s also frustration around Mobley, who remains one of the players the author first got excited about as a prospect. The talent was obvious from the start - athleticism, size, skill and upside, with the kind of ceiling that suggested a baby Kevin Garnett.
But the offensive leap still hasn’t arrived. The hope has been for him to become more assertive on that end and a stronger interior force, and that step still hasn’t come.
That doesn’t make him a bad player. His defensive value is obvious. But the belief here is that Cleveland’s core won’t truly contend for a championship unless Mobley takes that next step.
Add in the team’s lack of toughness, its trouble handling adversity and the Peyton Watson signing looking meh so far, and there isn’t much reason to fear the Cavaliers. They could still finish ahead of Toronto and put together a solid regular season. But when the playoffs arrive, the concern is that this group will shrink back into itself.
In Other News...
Gradey Dick Is Still Feeling The Raptors Trade Reality
Gradey Dick is still getting used to the strange rhythm of seeing the Raptors on the other side of the floor. In his second game against Toronto since being traded to the Los Angeles Clippers, Dick handled the matchup like a player who knows the business side of the league but still feels the personal side of it, talking afterward about adjusting to the change while keeping things cordial with his former teammates. He also had a solid night on the court, finishing with 12 points in 28 minutes.
The matchup carried a little extra weight because Brandon Ingram, another piece of the trade, was on the Clippers bench while recovering from injury. For Toronto fans, it was another reminder that the deal is still unfolding in real time, with former faces now scattered and the emotional residue of the move lingering even as both sides move on. Dick may be settling into his new uniform, but the first few meetings with his old team have made clear this one is going to take some getting used to. [Read more 🡒]
Raptors Road Comeback Solved One Problem But Exposed Another
The Raptors win over the Clippers offered a useful snapshot of where this group is right now: resilient enough to rally from a double-digit hole in the fourth quarter, but still uneven enough to put itself in that position in the first place. Toronto finished off a 125-118 road victory without Kawhi Leonard and Jakob Poeltl, leaning on Collin Murray-Boyles in a small-ball role at center and getting key defensive work from Scottie Barnes when the game tightened.
Still, the comeback did not erase the issue that created the pressure to begin with. Toronto has made it clear it wants cleaner starts in the games ahead, and that concern will be tested quickly with Denver next on the schedule. The Raptors can take plenty from the way they closed against the Clippers, but they also know they cannot keep asking for late-game rescue acts and expect the same result every night. [Read more 🡒]
Clippers Present The Exact Test Toronto Has Struggled To Handle
The Raptors are heading into a matchup with the Clippers that looks like a clean stress test for everything they want to be about. Torontos defensive identity has been a point of emphasis, and so has its ability to turn stops into transition offense, with Scottie Barnes and Immanuel Quickley central to how that tempo gets pushed. Against a Los Angeles team built to make opponents work for every possession, the pace of the game may matter as much as any individual scoring burst.
For Toronto, the bigger question is whether it can keep the contest on its terms long enough to avoid the kind of half-court grind that has exposed them at times. The Clippers bring the sort of tactical challenge that can force a team to stay disciplined on both ends, and this one figures to reveal a lot about how far the Raptors have come in controlling game flow. If they can dictate tempo, the matchup opens up in their favor, but if not, it could become the exact kind of night they have struggled to handle. [Read more 🡒]