Brandon Ingram and Scottie Barnes each scored 23 points Sunday afternoon and the Toronto Raptors held off the visiting Cleveland Cavaliers, 93-89, to even the best-of-seven first-round playoff series at 2-2.
Game 5 of the series is Wednesday at Cleveland.
RJ Barrett added 18 points for the Raptors, and Collin Murray-Boyles scored 15 with 10 rebounds. Jakob Poeltl contributed 10 points.
Donovan Mitchell scored 12 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter for Cleveland. James Harden added 19 points but had seven turnovers. Jarrett Allen had three points and 15 rebounds, and Sam Merrill contributed 14 points.
Toronto led by two points entering the fourth quarter. Barrett’s 10-foot floater gave Toronto a six-point lead with 9:28 to play. Mitchell drained a 3-pointer to tie the game at 74 and he made another 3-pointer that gave Cleveland a six-point lead with 5:14 left.
The lead reached eight on Mitchell’s two made free throws with 4:55 left. Ingram’s 3-pointer cut the lead to two with 2:36 to play but Merrill answered with a 3-pointer.
Barrett’s bank shot cut the margin to one with 49 seconds to go. After a Cleveland turnover, Barnes made two free throws to give Toronto a one-point lead. Mitchell missed a floater and Ingram grabbed the rebound with 23 seconds left. Barnes made two free throws before Mitchell missed a would-be game-tying 3-pointer.
Barrett made one free throw to bump the lead to four and Merrill hit a 22-foot jumper to cut the lead to two before Barnes sealed the game with 3.8 seconds left on two free throws.
Cleveland led 17-14 after a sloppy first quarter.
Toronto was 0-for-14 from 3-point range before Barrett hit one with 8:31 remaining in the second quarter to cut the deficit to four. After Cleveland took an eight-point lead on Mitchell’s 3-pointer, Toronto finished the first half on a 10-0 run capped by Ingram’s 3-pointer to take a 38-36 lead into the break.
The first half featured poor shooting from both teams. Cleveland shot 33.3% (15 of 45) from the field and Toronto shot 27.8% (15 of 54).
Harden converted two free throws to give Cleveland an eight-point lead with 4:38 remaining in the third quarter. Toronto chipped away and took a one-point lead on Sandro Mamukelashvili’s layup with 45 seconds left. Toronto led 60-58 after three quarters.
–Field Level Media
