CLEVELAND — Before Game 1, the folks at Rocket Arena handed out blue T-shirts with the Cleveland Cavaliers’ slogan printed across the middle in very legible font: “Let em **c**** know.” The “c” was the Cavs’ logo. The asterisks stood in for, well, you can guess.
By Wednesday’s Game 5 of this first-round playoff series against the Toronto Raptors, the motto had drifted down toward the bottom of the giveaways, and the font size shrank. Likely, these shirts were ordered weeks ago. Thematically, Cleveland’s diminished bravado made sense after its first trip to Toronto.
And so, when James Harden walked toward the Raptors’ bench during a timeout in the Cavaliers’ 125-120 win, the Raptors were no longer impressed or deferential. If they’d started this series in awe of the moment and the stage, that was no longer the case. They let Harden know that entering the area to grab a loose basketball was not OK, so much so that several Cavs made their way over to help extricate Harden from the situation.
“I take everything as disrespect,” said RJ Barrett, who had 25 points and 12 rebounds as his Raptors fell behind 3-2 in the series. “Don’t walk over to our bench and pick the ball up. James Harden is a guy I have tremendous respect for. I always have. I’ve always watched him growing up. But who cares right now? Don’t walk to our bench and grab the ball.”
“There were no scuffles. Nothing happened,” Harden offered as a response. “There’s no techs.”
The Raptors are earning their respect — from the Cavaliers and from the league at large. At full power, they would have been significant underdogs in this series. Immanuel Quickley, the strongest 3-point shooter in a starting lineup short on that quality, has missed the entire series with a hamstring injury. Brandon Ingram was ineffective right up until he aggravated a heel injury that had been bothering him near the end of the regular season, ending his night in the second quarter.
And most problematically, Scottie Barnes limped into the post-game interview room. He hurt his quadriceps on a drive in the second quarter and spent most of the second half setting screens on offence and guarding off the ball.
“I think having him not be 100 percent hurt us at the end,” guard Jamal Shead said. “But I think we were still right there. With him being hobbled, with BI being out, we were still right there.”
“It ain’t nothing,” Barnes said about the injury. “I’ll be ready (for Friday’s Game 6).”
Barnes might be putting on a brave face. After looking like the best player on the floor in the first half — and frankly, that’s what he has been in this series — he went 0 of 6 from the field in the second half. Without Ingram and Barnes, the Raptors don’t have their two main offensive forces. Without Quickley, they are missing their top shooter. Their offensive infrastructure is gone.
And still, they were only a few 3s away from stealing this game.
“I don’t take it for granted. I think it’s very, very special how this group is resilient,” Raptors coach Darko Rajaković said. “It’s easy to say after we win the game by four points (on Sunday), we’re resilient. I thought we were a very resilient team tonight as well, even though we lost over here. We were constantly trying to find ways, finding different lineups, finding guys who can help us win the game.”
These T-shirts were distributed to Rocket Arena fans on Wednesday. (Jeff Haynes / NBAE via Getty Images)
That must be immensely gratifying to Rajaković. The Raptors have shown that even when they are short on talent, comparatively, they are long on the traits that Rajaković has attempted to build the franchise’s identity around since he took over in 2023.
Until a six-minute stretch without a field goal that bridged the third and fourth quarter buried them, the Raptors kept finding ways to keep the Cavaliers at bay. Even with Harden having a much better shooting night than he had in either game in Toronto, the Raptors still forced him into six turnovers, often leading to buckets going the other way.
The Raptors will live with Donovan Mitchell going 7 of 17 with only two trips to the free-throw line. Raptors sophomore wing Ja’Kobe Walter said Wednesday morning that once the Raptors stopped worrying about Mitchell and Harden looking for fouls and started defending with the ferocity they played with for most of the year in Game 3, everything changed for them in this series.
Rajaković agreed. And if Evan Mobley, who has struggled to shoot all year long, hadn’t knocked down all three of his 3s in the second half, perhaps that ferocity would have been enough. Regardless, against an offensive machine as efficient as Cleveland’s, those are the shots the Raptors will concede. Old friend Dennis Schröder got loose a little too easily, but as Raptors fans remember, he’s not going to knock down half of his attempts from deep every night.
“I felt like we were really confident,” Shead said. “I think that’s the part about everybody in here, is that it’s really next man up. Everybody has the confidence to go out there and try to win the game and try to be a part of something bigger than themselves.”
That, of course, might not be enough in this series with Toronto in this state. Fully healthy, the Raptors were one of the weaker offensive teams to make the playoffs. They will have nearly zero margin for error as they try to extend the series. They will have to once again win the possession battle, which they did Wednesday by grabbing 11 more offensive rebounds than the Cavaliers.
Barnes, at least, must be a lot healthier to begin Friday than he was to end Wednesday.
“I think we should be encouraged with all that happening and we were still in position to win the game,” Barrett said. “That’s a testament to everybody on our team. We’ve always had a next-man-up mentality. Obviously, we love those guys and need those guys. Whatever the situation may be, we’re gonna go out there, we’re gonna play together, we’re gonna fight and give it everything we have.”
The Raptors might not have the horses to send this series back to Cleveland. Unquestionably, though, they have let ’em know.
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