Cavaliers easily take 1-0 series lead on Toronto with 126-113 win
BY TIM SHIRER
CAVS BEAT WRITER
(CLEVELAND, OH) - On Saturday at Rocket Arena the NBA playoffs began for the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cavaliers earned the four seed in the Eastern conference, winning 52 games. The 2025-26 season was anything but smooth as the Cavs won 12 fewer games than the 2024-25 season. They made a gigantic midseason trade when they jettisoned Darius Garland (one of the so-called “core four”) to the Clippers in exchange for veteran James Harden on February 4th.
The Cavs organization’s focus then became health. Keeping the team healthy for today and going forward in the post season however long that goes on.
The opponent in the opening round is the number five seeded Toronto Raptors. The Raptors swept the Cavs during the regular season 3-0. The last of the three meetings was on November 24. The Cavs were never fully healthy in any of the three games and had not acquired Harden, Keon Ellis, or Dennis Schroder. On Saturday, the Cavs were fully loaded and blew out the Raptors 126-113 which was not indicative of the flow of most of the game.
The game began with a couple of defensive stops by both teams and then Scottie Barnes of the Raptors, who talked a little bit during the week, was called for an offensive foul. Jarrett Allen got the Cavs on the board first with a dunk with 10:53 left in the opening quarter. With 8:14 left after the Raptors went on an 8-2 run Allen tied the game 8-8 when he drove the paint for the dunk. With 7:21 left in the opening quarter Barnes picked up his second personal foul. Then just six seconds later Donovan Mitchell gave the Cavs a 13-11 lead when he drained a three. The Raptors called an immediate timeout. With 5:00 left on the clock and the Cavs trailing 17-15 Harden drained a three with the shot clock running to put the Cavs on top 18-17. The Raptors responded with four straight points to take a 21-18 lead with 4:05 on the clock. With 2:31 remaining in the first quarter, the Raptors took a 24-20 lead and then a 27-22 lead when Barnes hit a three with 2:01 left on the clock. With 1:40 remaining Jaylon Tyson was called for his second personal. Brandon Ingram missed both free throws. With 1:12 remaining and the Raptors leading 29-26 Sam Merrill was fouled. He hit both and cut the Toronto lead to one point. The Cavs tied the game 31-31 with :46.4 remaining when Mitchel hit a three and then took the lead with :25.1 left when Max Strus hit a jumper. Then as time ran out on the opening quarter Mitchell hit Strus, and the Cavs led 35-31 after one quarter. Ingram and Barnes led all scorers with nine points apiece. Harden was pacing the Cavs with seven.
The Raptors shot a blistering 63% (12 of 19) while the Cavs shot 58% (11 of 19). The Cavs bench outscored the Raptors bench 10-6 in the first 12 minutes. Cleveland also outrebounded Toronto 8-6.
Early in the second quarter Mitchell was elbowed in the face on a shot and was called for a personal foul. Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson challenged it, and the challenge was unsuccessful much to the dismay of the sellout crowd. With 10:22 left Mitchell drained a three from in front of the Raptors bench to give the Cavs a 38-34 lead. It was obvious by the second quarter that the memo to lead official Tony Brothers from the NBA office was to keep the Raptors in the game. With 8:00 remaining in the opening half Jamal Shead drained a three tying the game 39-39. The Cavs took a 44-39 lead with 5:50 left when Harden hit a three from near the top of the arc. With the Cavs up 44-42 Ellis was fouled shooting a three. He drained the three but missed the free throw and the Cavs led 47-42. With 1:22 left in the first half Harden hit another three and gave the Cavs a 58-51 lead. When the halftime buzzer sounded the Cavs led 61-54. Harden led all scorers in the opening half with 15 points. The Cavs had three players in double figures. Ingram led the Raptors with 13 points. The Raptors shot 53% (21 of 38) from the field in the opening half. While the Cavs weren’t far behind shooting 51% (20 of 39). The Raptors also outshot the Cavs from long range 53% (8 of 15) to 44% (8 of 18). The difference in the half was from the free throw line where the Cavs shot 77% (13 of 17) to 44% (4 of 9). The Cavs also outrebounded Toronto 18-15. The Cavs also dominated the paint, outscoring the Raptors 24-14.
With 10:38 left the Cavs went up by 11 when Evan Mobley hit Allen in the paint. The Cavs lead grew to 67-54 with 10:12 left in the third and Raptors coach Darko Rajaković called an immediate timeout. With 9:07 left in the third period the Cavs’ lead grew to 72-56 when Mobley scored in the paint. Then the lead was 17 points when Max Strus drained a three from in front of the Cavs bench with 7:10 left. The route was on with 6:36 left and the Cavs led 80-60 when Merrill hit Strus at the top of the arc and he hit the dagger. With 5:37 left in the third Toronto was stumbling around disoriented as the Cavs led 82-60 and Rajakovic called a timeout as the Cavs had outscored Toronto 21-6 in the first 6:23 of the period. The Raptors went on a run for the next three minutes and cut the Cleveland lead to 85-70. With 3:03 left on the third quarter clock Strus picked up his second personal when he fouled Barnes. The vocal big man hit one of two free throws and the Cavs lead was at 14. With 2:16 left Strus was called for another foul when he apparently fouled the fragile Barnes. Barnes again hit only one of two and the Cavs led 89-74. When time ran out in the third period Cleveland lead was 97-76 as the Cavs outscored the Raptors 36-22 in the third. Mitchell led all scorers through three with 24 points. RJ Barrett was pacing Toronto with 18. The Cavs shot 50% (12 of 24) in the third while the Raptors shot just 36% (5 of 14). The Cavs continued to dominate the boards 30-20 through three.
With 10:25 left Branes threw Jaylon Tyson to the ground. Tyson was not happy and both were accessed technical fouls by the ever-lovable Tony Brothers. With 7:25 left the Allen fouled Barnes and once again the public enemy number one of Cleveland fans only hit one of two. With 6:43 left the Cavs lead was at 20 points again when Harden made an impossible fadeaway jumper near the paint. The Cavs continued to maintain an 18-to-20-point lead through most of the final quarter. The Raptors closed the gap in the final minutes, but the Cavs still secured a solid 126-113 win.
Mitchell led everyone in scoring with 30 points. It was Mitchell’s ninth consecutive 30 point effort in a playoff series opener which is an NBA record. Strus also had 24 for the Cavs and Harden tallied 22 and 10 assists for a double double. Harden also moved into 13th place all-time in scoring the NBA playoffs passing the legendary Larry Bird.
The Cavs dominated the Raptors in every phase of the game, especially in the second half.
Game two will be on Monday night at 7 pm at Rocket Arena with the Cavs holding a 1-0 lead..
POSTED 04/18/2026 16:15
Lake County Sentinel
This Space could be yours
Thousands of People Will See it
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?
email us for more info at:
Cavs superstar James Harden scores in the third quarter of the Cavs game 1 playoff win over the Toronto Raptors Saturday afternoon at Rocket Arena. . . Photo by Tim Shirer
