04/18/26 04:42:00
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04/18 16:40 CDT Mitchell scores 32 as Cavaliers defeat Raptors 126-113 in Game
1 of East first-round series
Mitchell scores 32 as Cavaliers defeat Raptors 126-113 in Game 1 of East
first-round series
By JOE REEDY
AP Sports Writer
CLEVELAND (AP) --- 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."
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