Category: Sports News

Can someone explain to me how the Houston Rockets are 9.5-point favorites tonight in Game 3 against the Los Angeles Lakers?

Sure, I get that the game is in Houston. The Rockets are in desperation mode after dropping the first two games in LA. Role players almost always play better at home than on the road in the playoffs. The Lakers have shot exceptionally well while the Rockets have…not.

Yet all of those factors pale in the shadow of truth that the Rockets just aren’t a good basketball team right now. The problems are everywhere, including coaching, effort, basketball intelligence, and ability.

The Lakers come into this game (and Sunday’s) playing with house money. Thanks to a media blitz relieving them of all pressure heading into the postseason, just winning two games in this series has allowed them to have fun and be free. They are feeling the effects of having zero expectations. Meanwhile, Houston is in an embarrassing position after losing two games against an undermanned Lakers squad missing their two best players. Marcus Smart and Luke Kennard have turned into superstars and the Lakers have collectively decided that missing three pointers is so last year.

So what has actually changed between Games 2 and 3? How is Houston such a heavy favorite when all the evidence says they should be serious underdogs? And that doesn’t include the potential return of Austin Reaves (who is questionable) or the lack of Kevin Durant (also questionable). The Rockets haven’t been swept in a playoff series since 1996. That could change by Sunday.

Tip-off

7pm CT

How To Watch

Amazon

Injury Report

Rockets

Steven Adams: OUT

Fred VanVleet: OUT

Kevin Durant: questionable

Lakers

Luka Doncic: OUT

Austin Reaves: questionable

The Line (as of this post)

HOU -9.5

Check here for updates

Looking ahead because we can

Game 4 on Sunday in Houston

ATLANTA — The Knicks have a Mitchell Robinson dilemma.

Not with his production, though that also wasn’t strong during the Knicks’ Game 3 loss Thursday at State Farm Arena. But rather with his ability to play well with Karl-Anthony Towns while sharing the court.

And with Towns scoring 21 points and helping carry the Knicks’ offense down the stretch, that meant Robinson finished with just 11 minutes, two points and four rebounds during their 109-108 loss — and didn’t play for the final 9:25.

“We need something from everybody, and the reality of what happened was — we ended up going with KAT. KAT played a significant amount of minutes for us because he was rolling in that second half,” head coach Mike Brown said, when asked specifically about Robinson — who wasn’t available after the game.

It served as a stark contrast to Robinson’s Game 2, when he finished with 12 points on a perfect 6-for-6 shooting and seven rebounds. That was the blueprint.

That was a blend of rebounding — his strength — and what he could provide on offense, too.

But three nights later, that disappeared. His lone basket occurred with just under four minutes remaining in the first half, when Jalen Brunson hit him on a roll to the basket. Robinson didn’t attempt a free throw the entire game, either.

The Hawks didn’t need to use the hack-a-Mitch strategy when he wasn’t on the court late in the half to begin with.

Brown talked about the lingering issue pregame, too — with how Robinson and Towns have struggled to share the court together — and how one of the only ways for Robinson to play more is to have Towns on the bench.

“The combination of the two of them right now hasn’t been great,” Brown said beforehand, “and so I’m choosing to not play them together right now during the series a lot because of the matchups and stuff like that. At the end of the day, it’s a choice.”

Then, that issue materialized in real time.

ATLANTA — Josh Hart delivered his first playoff dud — at least scoring-wise — at the worst time.

For the opening two games, he was consistent for the Knicks. Entering the postseason, his 3-point shooting was something that could make the difference down the stretch — just like it did against the Celtics late in the regular season.

But with fellow starter Mikal Bridges benched and scoreless, Hart only managed two points during the Knicks’ gutting 109-108 loss to the Hawks in Game 3 on Thursday.

He finished 1-for-9 shooting at State Farm Arena and missed all four of his 3-pointers. Hart still produced nine rebounds, six assists and played strong defense on CJ McCollum after he was switched onto him in the second half, but when his scoring faltered, it left the Knicks too dependent on Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns and OG Anunoby.

“I mean, yeah, they just didn’t go,” Hart said. “… I gotta make them.”

This has become a recurring issue for Hart throughout the first-round series, too. He entered Thursday with just one made 3-pointer, despite hitting a career-best 41.3 percent of his shots from beyond the arc during the regular season.

He had a bad turnover in transition late in the first quarter, as he dribbled the ball off his leg and out of bounds, and his only basket occurred with 7:35 remaining — when Towns fed him a pass and he deposited it through the net.

If there was a silver lining for Hart, and a glimmer of hope for the Knicks, too, Mike Brown switched him onto McCollum at the start of the second half, and Hart was effective in limiting the Hawks’ star — who erupted for 32 points in Game 1 and another 16 in the opening half Thursday — when matched up with him.

“I just tried to make it tough for him,” Hart said. “That was the biggest thing, just try to make it tough for him, force him into tough shots.”

But the ineffectiveness on offense will sting. And the 3-point shooting — and his specifically — has quickly become a Knicks problem.

“I feel like we had good shots,” Hart said. “We didn’t knock them down.”

The Cleveland Cavaliers got run off the floor in Game 3 against the Toronto Raptors.

All grades are based on our usual expectations for each player.

Donovan Mitchell

15 points, 3 assists, 5 rebounds, 3 turnovers

Mitchell didn’t do enough tonight. Simple as that.

It’s unusual to see Mitchell so uninvolved in a playoff game. The Raptors aggressively denied him the ball — and neither the Cavs nor Mitchell seemed overly willing to challenge that. They instead allowed Toronto to dictate the terms of engagement, keeping Mitchell off the board with just 15 points on 16 shot attempts.

All the while, he was targeted in the pick-and-roll by Toronto’s offense. He didn’t fare very well there, either.

Grade: F

James Harden

18 points, 4 assists, 4 rebounds, 8 turnovers

You’ve seen this type of game before from Harden.

More turnovers than field goals made is painful. Not hustling back after turning it over is worse. Harden’s defense was bad, and for the first time in Cleveland, his offense didn’t even come close to making up for it.

Grade: F

Evan Mobley

15 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals, 1 block

Mobely was able to feast in Game 2 as a result of Mitchell and Harden breaking down the defense and then feeding him with an advantage.

Tonight, however, Scottie Barnes expertly denied Harden the ball in the backcourt. That forced Mobley to bring the ball up the floor and create for himself more than at any other point in the series.

The results weren’t awful, with Mobley dishing 7 assists and actually finding a brief groove in the second half. But that moment was fleeting — and most of those possessions ended in a drained shot clock with nothing to show for.

Worse, I think this was one of the least impactful defensive games of Mobley’s career. He was shockingly absent while the Raptors scored 60 points in the paint.

Grade: D

Jarrett Allen

12 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 3 blocks

The Cavs can’t afford for Allen to slip now. He’s been crucial to their success all season, but is once again looking like an afterthought as the team jacks three-pointers and stretches him too thin defensively by asking him to cover for an unreasonable amount of breakdowns.

It didn’t help that Allen himself seemed lethargic tonight, too. A recipe for yuck.

Grade: F

Dean Wade

5 points, 5 rebounds, 1 steal

Finally, something decent to talk about.

Wade’s still a non-threat on offense. And that has constricted their ability to generate clean looks as the Raptors are starting to ignore him in favor of packing the paint. Those drive-and-kicks to Wade almost always end in a swing pass before resetting the offense. The guy just doesn’t want to shoot.

That said, Wade remains a bright spot defensively and was crushing the Raptors with his offensive rebounding. Wade’s ceiling is clearly defined, but he did all of the floor-raising things tonight to justify his minutes.

Grade: C+

Max Strus

15 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal

Strus could sense trouble in the water. He entered the game and immediately began firing away, briefly swinging the momentum and finishing with 15 points on 4-8 three-point shooting.

I really don’t have anything bad to say. Strus unloaded the clip and did so efficiently. This one wasn’t on him.

Grade: B+

Keon Ellis

0 points, 4 rebounds, 1 block, 1 turnover

Ellis has only made one shot so far in this series. He didn’t even attempt one tonight. The margin for error is getting too thin to keep him on the floor. Not to mention, his defense continues to fall by the wayside. Ellis takes some extremely questionable angles when navigating screens — and the Raptors have figured that out.

Grade: D–

Jaylon Tyson

13 points, 4 assists, 2 rebounds,

Tyson was one of the only other bright spots. He’s finally dispatched those ‘first playoff’ jitters and is playing like the version of himself that we saw in the regular season. Tyson shot 3-6 from downtown and had a few shots rattle in and out. The Cavs would love for him to continue playing like this.

Grade: B

Sam Merrill

3 points, 3 rebounds

Toronto has totally taken Merrill off the board. He just can’t find any daylight. And trust me, this is a player who doesn’t need much room to get a shot off. The fact that he only attempted two three-pointers in 18 minutes tells you everything you need to know about the Raptors’ defensive game plan.

Grade: D+

Dennis Schroder

3 points, 1 rebound, 3 turnovers

Yeesh.

Three turnovers in five minutes is enough to stay on the bench for the rest of the game series.

Grade: F

Playoff basketball has returned to Toronto! After losing the first two games of the series in Cleveland, the Raptors returned to Scotiabank Arena to try to get a game on the board and keep their playoff hopes alive. It’s been a little bit of a rough series for Toronto — turnovers, offensive droughts, injury — but bringing the series home always shakes things up a little bit. That’s what the Raptors were banking on, anyway.

After a little bit of a rough start — a few early fouls for Scottie Barnes, another quiet night from Brandon Ingram, some turnovers — the Raptors finally seemed to settle into the game. In a fourth-quarter push fuelled by Jamison Battle’s impressive shooting, RJ Barrett’s love for the city of Toronto, and Barnes being a menace, the Raptors made Bay Street rock as they secured their first big lead of the series.

Ultimately, the Raptors got the win 126-104 over the Cavaliers to win game three, bringing the series to 2-1 and avoiding putting themselves in an elimination situation.

There were so many impressive things from this game.

Scottie Barnes plays most impactful game of his career

Barnes was everywhere for the Raptors in their win in game three, cementing likely his most important game since coming into the NBA. Wherever the team needed him, he was there. He scored 33 points and had 11 assists, 5 rebounds, 1 steal and 1 block while shooting 11-for-17 from the field.

“Nothing surprised me,” Darko Rajakovic said about Scottie’s night. “I know he’s going to put everything out there for his team to win a game.”

Games like this are why Barnes has been given the keys to lead this team. When he plays like this, he’s an unstoppable force that can shift the energy of a series. He puts the team on his back and leads by example.

When it came to what was in Barnes’s mind through that game he mentioned they were trying to “focus on one possession at a time, we were playing so hard… control what we can control and live with the results.”

That energy will be needed on Sunday if the Raptors want to even out their series on Sunday.

“We got a lot more, we need to keep making adjuments,” Barnes said, “We have so much we can improve, we still have a lot of work to do.”

RJ Barrett represents for the home team

First playoff game in Toronto for the kid from Mississauga, and did he ever show out for it. He joined Barnes in scoring 33 points in the game, along with 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals and 1 block while shooting 12-for-19 from the field.

“I know he was very exited to play a game in front of home crowd,” Rajakovic said about Barrett after the game. “I know he gave it all, all his preparation — he did extra work to put himself in a position to help the team win.”

The crowd was giving him the support he needed in the second half as he went nuclear to help the Raptors expand the lead and take a 10+ point lead.

“That was great, energy in the building was crazy,” Barrett said after the fact, “they definitely helped us out.”

With Ingram struggling to find his rhythm in this series, Barrett absolutely needed to step up in order for the Raptors to have any chance of winning this game. This game and how he handled the moment might change the trajectory of his career as he becomes extension eligible this summer.

Jamison Battle loves playing the Cavaliers

Jamison Battle checked into this game in the second half and just went off, shooting 100% from three and 100% from the field. He was a huge part of the momentum shift in the second half that sent the Raptors on a run that would ultimately win them the game.

The funny part is, he did something very similar when the Raptors played the Cavaliers back near the beginning of the season.

“Ultimate professional, always keeps himself ready, always putting in the work,” Rajakovic said of Battle’s contributions to the team.

“He’s been ready whenever his name is called, we are not surpised but happy to have him on out side,” RJ Barrett added.

The work is far from over though, as the Raptors are still down 2-1 in the series. They have another home game on Sunday before heading back to Cleveland for game five. If they are able to win Sunday’s game and even the series 2-2, that will also guarantee another game in Toronto for game six. If the Raptors keep playing like they did in the final stretch of tonight’s game, there is definitely a chance for that to happen.

The Cleveland Cavaliers took a blow in their first game on the road against the Toronto Raptors.

Let’s go over today’s losers, because there are no winners. Except the Tyson family, who deserve an honorary shout-out.

LOSER – Turnovers

Let’s start by setting the table. Or, like the Cavs, by spilling things all over the place and causing a mess.

Cleveland opened this game with nine turnovers in the first quarter. That’s enough to break your back in the NBA Playoffs. The Cavs somehow managed to weather the storm and stay within two possessions at the end of the quarter — but it set the stage for how poorly things would go.

Every potential run from the Cavaliers was met by these self-inflicted errors. That’s not to take anything away from the Raptors, whose length and athleticism contributed directly to those turnovers, but throwing the ball into the third row (like James Harden did in the second half) is something most NBA players can avoid.

“I didn’t think our spacing was great,” said Kenny Atkinson after the game. “Crowding the paint on our drives… they decided they really want to pack it, and I felt like we were trying to thread the needle too much trying to pass it in there.”

Dennis Schroder played five minutes in the first half. He turned it over three times in that stint and didn’t play the rest of the game.

Harden finished with a game-high 8 turnovers. That was his first playoff game with as many turnovers since 2019, when he was with the Houston Rockets. Some of his more careless giveaways were tough to watch. Though again, Toronto deserves credit for swarming him and making life a living hell.

The Raptors forced Cleveland into 20 turnovers overall. They took those for 23 points off turnovers. That was more than enough to erase any marginal advantage the Cavs had gained on the offensive glass (16-11). The truth is, if you give up that many possessions, you lose the game more often than not.

LOSER – The Paint

Much will be made of the Cavaliers’ three-point defense in this game. Trust me, anyone who has read FTS this season has heard plenty of complaints about how this team has defended the perimeter.

But while Toronto shot 14-23 (60%) from downtown in Game 3, the Cavs matched them in lockstep with 14 makes of their own. What truly buried the Cavs was Toronto’s dominance in the paint, outscoring Cleveland 60-40 in the restricted area.

Scottie Barnes bruised them for 33 points on 8-12 shooting from two-point range. RJ Barrett and Collin Murray Boyles joined in on the fun, combining for 55 points while shooting 17-26 inside the arc.

Meanwhile, the Cavs relied almost entirely on their outside shot. Cleveland took 45 three-point attempts and only 36 shots inside the arc. Harden, Mitchell, and Mobley took a combined 42 shot attempts, half coming from the three-point line, where they shot 4-21.

That’s the difference.

“He [Boyles] is a warrior, to be honest with you,” said Raptors’ coach Darko Rajakovic after the game. “I thought he had a high-level performance tonight and I contribute that to the power of his will.”

Toronto’s hot shooting obviously opened the floor for them to dominate the paint. Cleveland’s bigs, especially, started to drift further out to the three-point line at the cost of giving easier drives to the basket for the Raptors. I’d say they should have stuck to the game plan and walled off the interior — but the Raptors simply couldn’t miss, so I can’t fully blame the Cavs for overreacting and trying to stay within range of three-point shooters.

Nonetheless, Cleveland should be winning the battle of the paint. You can’t always control whether your opponent will catch fire from downtown. But you can control the paint. Mobley and Allen weren’t impactful enough tonight, even with their four blocks. Harden and Mitchell were also tested, routinely being put into Toronto’s actions and failing to meet the moment.

The Raptors won’t replicate their 60% three-point shooting again. At least, I wouldn’t expect them to. But I have no reason to believe they can’t replicate what they did in the paint.

The Cavs have to work harder in this regard or risk going back home with a tied series.

LOSER – 4th Quarter Battle

After (somehow) keeping this game close for 40 minutes, everything I mentioned finally came back to bite the Cavs in the fourth quarter.

Jamison Battle jumped off the bench and nailed four-of-four three-point attempts. Barrett doused more gasoline on the fire while Barnes and CMB repeatedly forced the Cavaliers to launch their own three-point shots to no avail. Controlling the paint, nailing three-pointers, and forcing turnovers was the path to victory for Toronto.

What followed was a 43-23 thrashing in the fourth quarter.

I think it’s worth reiterating that the Cavs did have this game within range before that final blow. It was a two-point game going into the final frame — and genuinely, nothing about the style of the previous 36 minutes was dramatically different from the closing 12.

In other words, you could look at this game from two different perspectives. Glass half full? The Cavs played poorly, Toronto was red-hot, and yet the game was still within reach for most of the night.

Half empty? The Raptors showed they can dictate the terms of engagement for 48 minutes and have a spark going into Game 4.

“We’ll bounce back,” said Aktinson. “This is part of the playoffs, it’s part of the process.”

ATLANTA (AP) — CJ McCollum hit a fadeaway jumper with 12.5 seconds left to ruin New York’s night again, leading the Atlanta Hawks to a 109-108 victory and a 2-1 lead over the Knicks in their first-round playoff series on Thursday night.

After starring in a Game 2 stunner at Madison Square Garden, McCollum got the ball with his team trailing by a point. He came through again from 15 feet, finishing with 23 points.

The Hawks led nearly the entire game, building an 18-point lead in the first half. But New York rallied for a 108-105 edge on Jalen Brunson’s three-point play with 1:03 remaining.

After Jalen Johnson, who led the Hawks with 24 points, rolled in a shot, Josh Hart missed a 3-pointer for the Knicks. New York got the offensive rebound, but couldn’t get off a shot ahead of the 24-second clock.

The Knicks failed to get off a shot at the end, either, as Jonathan Kuminga knocked the ball away from Brunson and the horn sounded.

Kuminga had a huge night for the Hawks off the bench, finishing with 21 points.

OG Anunoby led the Knicks with 29 points, Brunson had 26 and Karl-Anthony Towns chipped in with 21. It wasn’t enough for New York.

Game 4 is Saturday in Atlanta.

RAPTORS 126, CAVALIERS 104

TORONTO (AP) — Scottie Barnes set career playoff highs with 33 points and 11 assists, RJ Barrett added a career playoff-high 33 points and Toronto beat Cleveland, snapping a 12-game playoff losing streak against the Cavaliers.

Collin Murray-Boyles had 22 points, Jamison Battle scored all of his 14 points in the final quarter and Brandon Ingram added 12 as the Raptors cut Cleveland’s lead in the Eastern Conference first-round series to 2-1.

Game 4 is Sunday afternoon in Toronto.

Murray-Boyles is the first Raptors rookie to score 20 or more in a playoff game.

The Cavaliers matched the NBA postseason record for consecutive victories against a single opponent by winning Game 2 on Monday but couldn’t extend that run in Toronto.

James Harden scored 18 points while Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley and Max Strus all had 15.

TIMBERWOLVES 113, NUGGETS 96

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Jaden McDaniels and Minnesota flexed even more of their defensive muscle against flagging Denver, seizing a 2-1 lead in the first-round NBA playoff series with a dominant 113-96 victory in Game 3 on Thursday night.

McDaniels had 20 points and 10 rebounds, Ayo Dosunmu added 25 points and nine assists off the bench, and Donte DiVincenzo had 15 points and four steals for the surging Timberwolves.

Rudy Gobert followed his inspired Game 2 effort against Nikola Jokic by stifling the three-time MVP again on an ugly 7-for-26 shooting night, and the Timberwolves established a postseason franchise record by allowing the Nuggets just 11 points in the tone-setting first quarter.

Jokic finished with a too-little-too-late 27 points and 15 rebounds for the Nuggets, who were missing Aaron Gordon to a calf injury and all of the energy he provides from his starting power forward spot. Jamal Murray had 16 points on just 5-for-17 shooting.

Brad Underwood is hitting the road this week with two of his staffers.

But it’s not a recruiting trip.

Illinois’ head coach visited Minnesota on Thursday ahead of Game 3 of the NBA playoffs between the Timberwolves and Nuggets.

Underwood posted a photo of him with former Illini star Ayo Dosunmu and two Illini staffers (Tyler Underwood and Zach Hamer).

No word on if BU & Co. also paid a visit to Ayo’s T-Wolves teammate Terrence Shannon Jr., but it’d be a fair assumption they crossed paths sometime.

Minnesota was up big at half over Denver.

The Cleveland Cavaliers fought hard for three quarters, but got run off the floor in the final frame. Their inability to control the ball and rough games from their star backcourt came back to bite them. As did the Toronto Raptors‘ inability to miss in the final frame. This all added up to a 126-104 loss in Game 3.

The Cavs still maintain a 2-1 lead in the series, but we could be heading for a much longer opening.

The first away game of a series is always a difficult test. If you’re going to win on the road, you have to be able to take punches and deliver counters at every turn. The Cavs did that throughout the first three quarters before finally giving in.

The Raptors went 12-17 from the floor and converted all five of their triples in the first quarter. That strong of a first quarter should’ve resulted in a double-digit lead after one, but six turnovers and an inability to keep the Cavs from going to the line kept Cleveland in the game as the Raptors were only up six after one.

Toronto pushed its advantage to 10 at the start of the second quarter before the Cavs rallied.

Max Strus jump-started what was a lifeless offense in the second quarter. He poured in 12 points on 3-5 shooting from deep in that frame to help turn the momentum. That hot shooting allowed the Cavs to momentarily reclaim the lead before both teams went into the break tied at 54.

Toronto once again threw the first punch in the second half. They used a 13-6 run to get a seven-point lead, but the Cavs once again clawed their way back. They forced a tie in the closing moments of the third before Scottie Barnes hit a contested jumper at the buzzer to give Toronto a slim 83-81 advantage heading into the final quarter.

The Raptors made their first five threes of the game, and then canned six straight in the final quarter to turn what was a tight game into what quickly became a double-digit affair.

The Cavs folded from there.

The offense couldn’t buy a basket, and they weren’t able to provide any resistance on the other end. What was once a back-and-forth game quickly snowballed into a stress-free win for Toronto.

Toronto won the final quarter 43-23. They went 8-9 from three (88.9%) and 17-23 (73.9%) from the field overall. RJ Barrett was the catalyst in the final frame. He scored 16 of his 33 points on 6-6 shooting in the fourth quarter.

James Harden played his worst game in a Cavaliers uniform on Thursday evening. He struggled with Toronto’s rangy defense as he turned it over eight times.

Turnovers weren’t an issue for just Harden. The Cavs as a team gave it away 20 times, which led to 23 points going the other way.

Harden finished the game with 18 points on 5-13 shooting with four assists.

Donovan Mitchell couldn’t establish a scoring rhythm. He had 15 points on 7-16 shooting with three assists and three giveaways of his own.

Evan Mobley had a good game at the charity stripe (7-8) but struggled with his efficiency from the floor. He had 15 points on 4-13 shooting to go along with seven assists, six rebounds, two steals, and a block.

Strus added 15 bench points in the loss.

The Cavs executed their game plan against Barnes. They kept him from getting to the rim and forced him to settle for jumpers. The problem for the Cavs was that he made those shots.

Barnes went 7-8 from the midrange and 3-5 from three. This added up to an efficient 33 points on 11-17 shooting.

The Raptors didn’t shoot a high volume of threes, but they canned the ones they took. They went 14-23 (60.9%) from beyond the arc in the victory.

Toronto will look to tie the series at two apiece as they host the Cavs for Game 4 on Sunday. Tip-off is at 1 PM.