TORONTO: Kyrie Irving is getting pretty good at these last-minute 3-pointers.
His 3 from the top of the arc Friday lifted the Cavaliers to a 94-91 victory over the Toronto Raptors at Air Canada Centre.
Irving’s basket with 44 seconds left was the last one of the game. It was reminiscent of his 3-pointer in the final minute of Game 7 against the Golden State Warriors — although this time, the stakes weren’t nearly as high.
It’s easy to understand why the games between these two teams mean a little more to the Raptors than they do the Cavs, who already have their championship and have advanced to the NBA Finals each of the last two years. They went through Toronto last season to do it.
Even when the Eastern Conference finals were tied 2-2 last season, the Cavs never seemed worried. After they finished off Toronto in six games en route to the first championship in team history, Kyle Lowry told NBA.com before the start of this season that it might be time for the Raptors to make a charge at the top seed in the East their No. 1 priority. It’s not a bad idea, since they lost the three games in Cleveland by an average of 29.3 points.
LeBron James has never put much of an emphasis on claiming the top seed; the Cavs won the East two years ago as the second seed. He’s also not ready to start worrying about seeding so early in the season.
“Finishing first should be a life priority. You should want to finish first in everything,” James said. “We would love to have an extra game on our floor for our fans. … We don’t put goals on ourselves.
“We know our ultimate goal is to win a championship, but it’s too far away to even think about it. You know, it’s — is it even November yet? See, I don’t even know what month it is. It’s almost Halloween. It’s too far away to be contemplating the end-of-the-season goals for our team.”
The Cavs led by 12 in the first half and maintained a 50-40 lead at the break before they got a bit sloppy with the ball. The Raptors tied the game at 86 before taking their first lead of the night, 89-88, when Kyle Lowry split two free throws with 2:37 left.
DeMar DeRozan’s 32 points kept the Raptors close. It also gave him the record (72) for most points scored through the first two games of a Raptors season. Lowry added 17 points, but shot just 5-of-16.
Irving had 26 points, James finished with 21 points, eight rebounds and seven assists and Kevin Love had 18 points and 10 rebounds.
James had five of the Cavs’ 18 turnovers. They were forced to play small much of the night because of Channing Frye’s absence. Frye’s mother, Karen, died Thursday night following a lengthy battle with cancer. Frye kept her illness relatively quiet — coach Tyronn Lue only learned about it within the last few days. Frye will also miss Saturday’s home game against the Orlando Magic and has been excused from the team indefinitely.
His absence forced Love to play a fair amount of minutes at center and forced the Cavs into an array of small-ball lineups. They started the second quarter with Irving, James, Iman Shumpert, Mike Dunleavy and Richard Jefferson. Shumpert was cleared from the league’s concussion protocol and allowed to return without missing a game.
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at www.ohio.com/cavs. Follow him on Twitter www.twitter.com/JasonLloydABJ.