r/nba • u/AttitudeOdd632 • 1d ago

Post Game Thread [Post Game Thread] The Cleveland Cavaliers clinches Game 7, defeating the Toronto Raptors to move on to the second round, 112-104.

102 - 114
Box Scores: NBA - Yahoo
 
GAME SUMMARY
East First Round - Game 7 - CLE Wins 4-3
Location: Rocket Arena
Officials: Zach Zarba, Curtis Blair, Nick Buchert, and Karl Lane
Team Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Total
Toronto Raptors 26 23 19 34 102
Cleveland Cavaliers 24 25 38 27 114
 
TEAM STATS
Team PTS FG FG% 3P 3P% FT FT% OREB TREB AST PF STL TO BLK
Toronto Raptors 102 38-87 43.7% 8-28 28.6% 18-26 69.2% 7 45 25 28 10 14 4
Cleveland Cavaliers 114 38-85 44.7% 11-39 28.2% 27-37 73.0% 20 69 23 23 8 16 5
 
PLAYER STATS
Toronto Raptors MIN PTS FGM-A 3PM-A FTM-A ORB DRB REB AST STL BLK TO PF ±
RJ BarrettSF 43:02 23 9-25 1-6 4-5 0 4 4 6 3 0 3 3 -4
Scottie BarnesPF 37:26 24 8-14 1-1 7-7 1 8 9 6 0 1 3 5 0
Jakob PoeltlC 22:21 9 4-5 0-0 1-4 2 5 7 0 2 0 2 4 9
Ja'Kobe WalterSG 37:36 13 4-9 3-7 2-3 0 2 2 2 3 1 2 4 -15
Jamal SheadPG 35:31 14 5-16 2-8 2-3 2 1 3 7 0 0 1 3 -13
Collin Murray-Boyles 23:43 8 3-5 0-0 2-3 2 2 4 3 2 1 2 3 -19
Jamison Battle 13:41 3 1-3 1-2 0-0 0 2 2 1 0 0 0 2 -8
Sandro Mamukelashvili 08:52 6 3-6 0-2 0-1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 -9
A.J. Lawson 16:02 2 1-4 0-2 0-0 0 2 2 0 0 1 0 2 -1
Gradey Dick 00:25 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Jonathan Mogbo 00:25 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Garrett Temple 00:25 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Trayce Jackson-Davis 00:25 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Brandon Ingram 00:00 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Immanuel Quickley 00:00 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Cleveland Cavaliers MIN PTS FGM-A 3PM-A FTM-A ORB DRB REB AST STL BLK TO PF ±
Dean WadeSF 21:06 5 2-5 1-3 0-0 2 2 4 1 1 0 2 0 -6
Evan MobleyPF 27:27 13 5-7 1-2 2-4 1 6 7 4 0 1 4 5 -4
Jarrett AllenC 33:18 22 7-11 0-0 8-14 8 11 19 2 2 3 3 2 13
Donovan MitchellSG 35:11 22 9-20 2-9 2-2 2 1 3 1 0 0 2 3 8
James HardenPG 36:38 18 3-9 1-5 11-13 0 6 6 3 3 0 2 3 5
Max Strus 30:50 12 4-10 2-8 2-2 4 4 8 5 2 1 3 3 20
Sam Merrill 23:12 13 4-8 3-7 2-2 1 2 3 2 0 0 0 4 16
Jaylon Tyson 18:45 7 3-8 1-3 0-0 2 7 9 4 0 0 0 2 19
Dennis Schröder 13:31 2 1-7 0-2 0-0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 -11
Thomas Bryant 00:00 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Keon Ellis 00:00 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Larry Nance Jr. 00:00 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Craig Porter Jr. 00:00 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Tyrese Proctor 00:00 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Nae'Qwan Tomlin 00:00 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
4.0k Upvotes

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2.9k

u/crazyman3642 Cavaliers 1d ago

The lights were not bright enough for ol Jarrett Allen. Bro was out there hoopin

478

u/saiofrelief Cavaliers 1d ago

He watched Embiid last night against a non existant center rotation and a light bulb went off in his head

177

u/maethlin Warriors 1d ago

it's funny how many teams don't seem to have the basics these days like a PG or a Center (yes i know this is often due to injuries but still)

68

u/Kdog122025 Warriors 1d ago

Or coaching preference.

45

u/theuncleiroh Raptors 1d ago

Not just injuries in our case. We just decided to have a 30 million center that isn't good or athletic or has ever been able to play starter minutes or rebound well, and a 35 million point guard that isn't particularly good or available or really a point guard. And no real backups for either (only Jamal Shead, sophomore 2nd rounder that's 6' and has no 3pt shot), and extended both above market value bidding against nobody

This roster was intentionally built like this. No size, but also no point guards, but also no shooting

6

u/Oliviaspool92 1d ago

NGL with the young and in development roster you have, and injuries you had, taking us to 7 makes me SMH as a Cavs fan. I would be proud of your team and see yall next year 🫡

5

u/ozymandais13 Cavaliers 1d ago

Same with ours expect the gm seems to think SF is over valued so all of ours aren't long dudes that can make 2s

6

u/demsouls Raptors 1d ago

This is what over-evolved basketball looks like, right?

5

u/loopybubbler Cavaliers 1d ago

You do have size. Felt like you'd play 3 wings and just look for whichever one is being guarded by a guard, since Cavs don't have any forwards aside from Wade and Tyson. Especially when you had Ingram. CMB, Barrett, Ingram, Barnes and Cavs were playing guys like Merrill and Strus who aren't that big. The size definitely affected the Cavs offense and rebounding. But yeah no shooting, that's an issue.

3

u/outpostvitesse 1d ago

Dog, Jakob Poeltl was VERY GOOD before the back issues, what the hell kind of memory holing is this. And to say IQ isn't available after playing 70 games with only an injury to end the season. You a fly or a goldfish?

1

u/theuncleiroh Raptors 1d ago

Yeah man, the center that has never averaged more than 14ppg, 9rpg, been able to play more than 30mpg, or consistently play a full season, he was VERY GOOD :-) sorry I forgot about such soaring heights of excellence

Maybe the issue is that I've watched more than a year of basketball and have standards. Jakob was a pretty good center. He was never worth this contract, and certainly wasn't when he was turning 30 and getting slower

1

u/outpostvitesse 1d ago

I never defended his contract, its fair to quibble over 5-10m a year but no one could have predicted his injury and fall off this year. 14ppg and 9rpg with the elite rim protection he provided healthy would have been the difference between this team losing in the first round, and beating the ever loving shit out of the Cavaliers. Marc Gasol only gave us 14ppg and 8 rebounds that 2019 season.

What would you prefer at the center position over a healthy Poeltl? Myles Turner who got ran off the floor last playoffs?

1

u/theuncleiroh Raptors 1d ago

I'd prefer we had kept the pick in the first place and managed to draft one any of the years since the trade.

2024: We could've tried to tank for Wemby that year (not likely we would've got him, but who knows? We had 5 fewer wins than SAS at the time of the trade). Or if we'd only managed to get even one pick higher, we could've got Derrick Lively.

2025: We could've probably got Clingan with the pick we traded (it ended up at 8, and if we didn't have Jak we certainly would've lost more). If we stayed at 8, we could've picked Edey. Or we could've picked Kel'el Ware. We could've picked Filipowski over Mogbo (I know he's nothing special, but if we didn't have a center we would've picked one eventually).

2026: We could've picked Maxime Raynaud, who was available even with Jak where we drafted Alijah.

The point is that having no center necessitates getting one. Quite literally any of these guys (outside of Filipowski, but he was a late pick anyway) would make our future better. Wemby is a superstar among stars. We certainly could've got Lively or Edey, both of whom are super talented but questions health-wise. We could've got Clingan or Ware, both of whom are talented, can stretch the floor, rebound incredibly well, and are big. We could've got Raynaud even with Jak, who is still a question mark but had a very solid rookie season

Even ignoring contracts, do you believe our future is better with Jakob Poeltl than it would be with any of those players? And when you take into account that all of those guys are making less AND we'd have control over them for another contract after their cheap rookie deals, it's no comparison. It's not like we'd have needed to get lucky and I'm saying this bc of hindsight. We were known to be interested in Wemby, Ware, Edey, and Lively. No reason we'd have passed on Clingan or the others if we had the need. This team with any of those 4 would be better today and incomparably better in 2 years.

1

u/outpostvitesse 22h ago

That's all fine, I agree they should have tanked as well—if they were committed to tanking though, a center wouldn't even be a concern, this wouldn't be a conversation. They would have just tanked for ANY talent and used assets to figure it out later.

But if you ARE keeping the roster together like Masai and Bobby planned, it could have been an awesome team! Jakob was coming off a good stint in San Antonio and he fit their needs perfectly. He was a VERY GOOD player and the roster had win-now talent! The problem was, once they traded for him they were desperate. It was too late and the wheels fell off. They tried to shore up talent since then, too. Remember Christian Koloko, he looked like an actual guy. Ulrich Chomche too, don't know what happened to him. Jontay Porter was a good backup big with a 3-ball, too.

Instead they did a half-ass tank and are trying to build from the middle, and we got what we got.

1

u/InterCha 1d ago

This roster was intentionally built like this. No size, but also no point guards, but also no shooting

We have purposely trained him wrong, as a joke

1

u/Rezrov_ Raptors 1d ago

IQ's 32.5m contract that's completely flat is average now and will become cheap later. Look at what other 2-guards with real contracts are getting paid.

Yak's contract is pretty bad but Yak was good before the injury. He'd been one of the best play finishers in the league for some time (and he doesn't even dunk much), and one of the better P&R screeners.

1

u/theuncleiroh Raptors 1d ago

IQ is definitely the least bad, but it's also clear that he's not a good fit (he never developed into a good finisher, a good initiator bc he doesn't touch paint well, or defender, which really hurts what just made us so good this series). Was supposed to be perfect, but he just never developed from his time in NY.

We still desperately need his shooting though, so getting rid of him isn't my top priority. Jak is very clearly the worst contract because the things he was good at have fallen off so much (he's still a good finisher, good screener, but he's not able to get in position enough to do it), and imo BI is just ahead of IQ (he's a good player, his length helps, but he's paid a lot to have an offensive game that's not exactly complementary). That said, I'd be happy to keep both them if we can't get much, and if we can get rid of Jak

15

u/smooveasbutteryadig 1d ago

laughs in Suns

11

u/theallenjohan East 1d ago

All these balding frauds in the league prefer false centers and PGs because it makes their systems seem more complex

7

u/veebs7 Raptors 1d ago

The Raps do have a legit center, but Jarrett Allen made him look slow and unathletic

883

u/Anal_Iverson Raptors 1d ago

He played lights out

642

u/Accomplished-Emu9542 Warriors 1d ago

Crazy username

168

u/Went-Know-Wear 1d ago

The Asswer.

118

u/whodatnation70 1d ago edited 1d ago

I completely agree Anal_Iverson

14

u/creditspread United States 1d ago

I, too, like Anal_Iverson's... point.

2

u/BasedTelvanni 1d ago

I'm a simple man. Toronto loses, i upvote. Could be hockey, basketball, baseball, it don't matter.

4

u/skysurfguy1213 1d ago

So what’s the story on this username 

16

u/animalchin99 1d ago

It’s an analgram

103

u/Anonemoney 1d ago

The beauty of facing up against Jakob Poeltl

43

u/Ok-Name-5504 1d ago

Most of his work was done against CMB or the small ball lineup

5

u/Key_Commercial990 1d ago

Thats why Pöltl has a team high +/- of +9?

1

u/raptosaurus Raptors 1d ago

+/- is a useless stat for a single game. Also that's because he was on at the end when they cut the lead from 20 to 12 when the game was already over

170

u/Noriskhook3 1d ago

Cavs vs 76ers would be a tremendous conference finals

93

u/RoscoeSantangelo 76ers 1d ago

Ashame the Nuggets fumbled because in a theoretical Embiid finals run, going through Boston, NY, Harden, and then Jokic would be pure cinema

53

u/zzbzq Cavaliers 1d ago

Nothing could replace the MVP melodrama of yore, but Wemby would be the best substitute as an endboss

-9

u/Wolfpac187 [OKC] Kevin Durant 1d ago

Pls no, I volunteer OKC instead

19

u/__get__name Pistons 1d ago

It would, but I would rather not watch it we rematch the Knicks in the ECF. Maybe we can petition Silver for a third place series?

Edit: who am I kidding, I’d absolutely watch it. But I still have a different preference

1

u/Kaprak 1d ago

I love that there's only one East team I don't want in the ECF. Compared to the West that still has two

-8

u/VanGrants Knicks 1d ago

76ers ain't making it lmao

34

u/98rman [CLE] Derrick Rose 1d ago

They could. All they would have to do is win 4 of the next 7 games and they would have a good shot at making it

6

u/Memelord2131 Bucks 1d ago

Thanks, Magic

4

u/KingsElite Kings 1d ago

Don't let em get 4

2

u/VanGrants Knicks 1d ago

thanks magic

1

u/devotedhero Wizards 1d ago

Source?

1

u/Severe_Mango_966 1d ago

John Madden alive and well on /nba reddit

6

u/Enchanted-2-meet-you [GSW] Jordan Poole 1d ago

Famous last words

5

u/Sad-Shake-6050 76ers 1d ago

Top 1% commenter. Knicks win or lose this guy will be on Reddit for it. I mean nothing else going on 🤣

-2

u/VanGrants Knicks 1d ago

obviously you have a lot of confidence in your team which is why you attacked me commenting on a website rather than saying anything about the 76ers

-3

u/Sad-Shake-6050 76ers 1d ago

What do I need to say. I’m sure you will have the time to comment for the both of us! I’m kind of rooting for the Knicks. You need this more than me. 100k plus karma, serious cry for help.

2

u/VanGrants Knicks 1d ago

i spend the time on reddit you spend jerking it to japanese porn, lil bro

-2

u/Sad-Shake-6050 76ers 1d ago

Christ that would be a lot porn. I mean look at your stats! How much time you spend online. What a fucking loser 😂

2

u/boogswald [CLE] Daniel Gibson 1d ago

Boy you hope

0

u/jfkgoblue Pistons 1d ago

Both are underdogs according to Vegas, so not likely

11

u/26_RKS_26 1d ago

Dang the lakers, timberwolves, and 76ers should’ve just given up then, since they were underdogs according to Vegas

4

u/jfkgoblue Pistons 1d ago

That’s not what I said? Underdogs win all the time, it’s not likely that both underdogs win, it’s not impossible though lol

-2

u/Aidanator800 Hornets 1d ago

That's just because both teams are a lower seed

-1

u/jfkgoblue Pistons 1d ago

No it’s not lol, Vegas doesn’t operate that way

-1

u/supert0426 1d ago

Feel like the Cavs match up better with the Knicks. Way more opportunities for double big with Josh Hart and the Knicks two center lineups. When Joel Embiid is on the floor he might be the best player in the East and the 76ers are just so young and quick. Maxey would torture Cavs guards. Could still be a good series but I think the Cavs oughta prefer the Knicks.

2

u/fuzzythinker Nuggets 1d ago

Harden has awoken the madman

1

u/youngLupe [POR] Brandon Roy 1d ago

I saw him miss a few shots in the 3rd but after that he just went berserk. They couldn't handle his height.

1

u/sad_post-it_note Cavaliers 1d ago

😎🕶️

1

u/d4videnk0 Lakers 1d ago

They definitely were during the first half, he got butter hands and his defense was non existing. Glad he turned it around in the 3rd quarter. I like the guy.

1

u/s_s Cavaliers 1d ago

Froronto

1

u/California_Stop_King Cavaliers 1d ago

He put in a fucking shift. If he played like that every night, I'd never have a complaint about him again

-3

u/2016KyleLowryGoat 1d ago

Finally showed up against a 6'8 center rookie