Summary of this article
Cleveland Cavaliers take lead in NBA playoff series against Toronto Raptors
Donovan Mitchell shined by scoring 32 runs
Max Strus gave impact coming from the bench
Donovan Mitchell scored 32 points, Max Strus had 24 off the bench and the Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Toronto Raptors 126-113 on Saturday in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series.
James Harden had 22 points and 10 assists while Evan Mobley had 17 and seven rebounds for fourth-seeded Cleveland, which hosts Game 2 on Monday night.
It was a playoff career high in points for Strus, who missed the first 67 games this season with a broken left foot that occurred during offseason training.
“When you see the work he’s put in all season, it’s for this moment, right? This is a regular occurrence with Max, maybe not 24 (points), but just the energy level and boost he gives us,” said Mitchell, who has scored at least 30 points in an NBA-record nine straight series openers. “You give him credit for his journey, it can be a lot on the mental for him to continue to stick with it.”
RJ Barrett scored 24 points and Scottie Barnes had 21 for the Raptors, who were playing in their first playoff game since 2022. Toronto was missing point guard Immanuel Quickley because of a mild right hamstring strain.
Jamal Shead started in place of Quickley and had 17 points, including five 3-pointers.
Barrett's 3-pointer pulled the Raptors to within 45-41 before Cleveland broke it open with a 27-9 run over the last 1:11 of the second quarter and first seven minutes of the third.
Strus scored 11 points during the spurt and made all three of his 3-pointers as the Cavaliers went 10 of 16 from the floor, including 5 of 8 beyond the arc.
“We just kept saying in the timeouts (during the first half to) stay with it. We’re going to get separation,” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said. “We needed that separation for our confidence. Going into halftime if you are down, it’s a harder conversation with the players to trust what we’re doing.”
Cleveland's largest lead was 24 points (100-76) on Sam Merrill's 3-pointer 13 seconds into the fourth quarter.
Toronto came into the game averaging a league-leading 18.9 points per game, but Cleveland held them to a season-low three.
“If we allow our opponent to score 126 points, it’s going to be tough to beat them," Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic said. "Unfortunately, we had a very bad start to the third quarter with lack of execution. We were way too stagnant tonight.”
