CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Cavaliers grinded out a sometimes ugly 115-105 win over the Toronto Raptors in Game 2 to take a 2-0 series lead. Much of that success was due to their defense and how they shut down forward Brandon Ingram, thanks in part to the services of Dean Wade. Toronto’s leading scorer was held to just seven points on 3-15 shooting.
Afterward, Raptors head coach Darko Rajaković acknowledged that he liked Ingram’s aggressiveness and that they need him to keep shooting if they’re going
to get back into the series. “I got absolute support for him. He’s going to make his shots.”
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But then, when asked about Ingram just before his postgame press conference ended, he decided to bring up one more related to Ingram’s struggles.
“Cleveland is playing with a lot of physicality,” Rajaković said. “They’re very prideful of their physicality, and their whole team was very, very physical with Brandon. So far me, it’s very interesting that he had zero free throws in this game. That’s kind of like, very interesting. Seeing zero takes, zero makes, it’s interesting.”
Rajaković wasn’t alone in feeling this way. Toronto forward RJ Barrett didn’t want to outright criticize the officials. Instead, he chose his words wisely when asked about his coach’s comments.
“I don’t know what to say on that one without getting fined,” Barrett said. “I’m not going to say anything.”
Then, he relented.
“Physicality or not, something has to be a foul at some point.”
The final free-throw totals wouldn’t necessarily back up these claims. Toronto took 17 free throws while the Cavs took 22. That’s a disparity, but not an overwhelming one.
Still, it is interesting that the Raptors have pointed to the Cavs’ physicality as being a factor in this series, considering that it has previously been an issue for this team. We’ll see how this storyline develops — particularly in terms of Ingram’s struggles — as the series shifts to Toronto for Game 3.
