Even if Raptors force Game 7, can they do anything in Cleveland?

Toronto Raptors players look on from the bench during second half Eastern Conference final NBA playoff basketball action (Frank Gunn/CP)

CLEVELAND – After the worst of the hurricane had blown through, the Toronto Raptors were trying to pick up the pieces of a basketball game that represented the peak of their unlikely NBA Finals fever dream.

The first quarter had unfolded exactly the way they had hoped it wouldn’t. The crowd at Quickens Loans Arena was loud, seemingly inspiring the Cleveland Cavaliers cavalry and leaving the Raptors shaken. The Raptors broke down, turned the ball over and missed shots. Their stars looked ordinary, their support staff indecisive.

It was so bad that ESPN loud talker Stephen A. Smith was considering apologizing to Americans for apologizing to Canadians as one wag on Twitter joked.

But once they were down by 20 with 10 minutes to go in the second quarter they made a stand of sorts. For about three or four minutes they kept the game at the farthest reaches of being within reach. It was for optimists-only territory, but still.

When Kyle Lowry cherry picked after a blocked lay-up and scored on a baseball pass, the Raptors were down just 21 with five minutes to go to the security of halftime. Force a turnover or two, make a few threes and they could imagine going into the half down 10 or less.

But then the dam broke and floodwaters rose. DeMar DeRozan got mad about a non-call and took a technical; Kevin Love hit a pair of free throws; and then Lowry turned it over leading to a solo fastbreak dunk by James. Bedlam. A couple of more scores and another James dunk. Madness. A Love three. More bedlam.

The hurricane had passed but the Raptors were drowning. There were no life preservers in sight. The game – such as it was – was over by halftime as the Cavaliers finished the second quarter on a 12-4 run that could’ve been worse if they had converted a couple of gimmes on their final two possessions.

As it was, Cleveland’s 65-34 lead was the largest hole the Raptors had put themselves in during their decidedly mixed post-season history and – it turns out – the largest halftime deficit in NBA conference finals history.

Not even the return to action of Jonas Valanciunas from his ankle injury could help. That might have been the bright spot in the game as he finished with nine points and no rebounds in 19 minutes.

“It was good, I was enjoying basketball,” said Valanciunas after missing eight games in just over two weeks. “Too bad everything turned out like this.”

Yes, yes it was. There was a slim hope that the Cavaliers’ first taste of a challenge in the playoffs would throw them for a collective loop and the cracks in a foundation that has always seemed a bit shaky would start to show.

No such luck.

“I’ve been a part of some very adverse situations,” said LeBron James, who didn’t so much lead the Cavs as guide them, finishing with 23 points and eight assists on 17 shots in 31 minutes. “And I just didn’t believe that this was one of them.”

The Raptors shot 39 per cent from the floor, 3-of-17 from three and surrendered 19 turnovers for a whopping 30 points, with five those coming in the first quarter leading to 10 points, mostly in transition, exactly what you want to avoid on the road. The Cavs shot 57 per cent from the floor, 47 per cent from three and were never challenged.

“They kicked our butts,” said Dwane Casey. “That’s the bottom line. You get out-rebounded by 21, 19 turnovers, the physicality. We didn’t meet that standard tonight.”

Look no further than the battle between the two team’s energizers: Bismack Biyombo hovered 40 rebounds in two games in Toronto but failed to gather a single offensive rebound in Game 5, while Tristan Thompson scooped up five including a couple in the game’s first few possessions that led to quick Cavs scores.

They lost the game but also perhaps their best chance to advance to the NBA Finals, of this there is no doubt. Looking ahead to Game 6 it’s hard to suggest the Raptors will be eliminated on their home floor on Friday night. Air Canada Centre has become that difficult a place to play. There’s every chance the series will return for Game 7, but that’s where the Raptors may have missed whatever slim chance they had at advancing.

Based on the way the Cavaliers have played Toronto in Cleveland, there are no indicators that suggest their mastery over the Raptors at the Q will lessen. A Game 7 is a Game 7. Anything can happen, by definition, but Toronto’s most realistic opportunity to shock the world would have been a win in Game 5 and a chance to clinch at the ACC in Game 6.

“We definitely missed a chance,” said Luis Scola. “There was a chance there and we missed it. We have to win one game here, we have two left and one is gone.”

Game 5 unfolded just like Games 1 and 2 when the Raptors became the first team in NBA history to lose the first two games of a conference finals by at least 19 points.

This time the Raptors were down 19 at the end of the first quarter and never got closer, not even for a second.

Why? Who knows.

“Honestly, no. No idea,” said Patrick Patterson when asked if he could explain why the Raptors have turned the Q into a house of horrors this season.

“Defensively we knew they were going to trap, we knew they were going to do something different, we were prepared for it,” said Patterson. “But for some reason we were turning the ball over too much, not getting back in transition and by the time you knew it we were down 20 points.”

The score was 100-60 after three periods and all of sudden the need for some kind of mercy rule in the NBA seemed urgent. It was like the Cavaliers’ Dahntay Jones, back after serving a one-game suspension for hitting Biyombo in the groin at the end of Game 3, was playing his brand of help defence all over the floor.

The whole thing made the Raptors homestand seem suddenly distant. Lowry and DeRozan were at their apparent peak in Game 4. They joined Clyde Drexler and Terry Porter as the only backcourt teammates to have each scored 30+ points in a conference finals game, something the former Trail Blazers stars did in 1992; and they became the first teammates – regardless of position – to each have gone off for 32 points in a conference finals game since Shaquille O’Neill and Kobe Bryant did it in 2001. They have never scored more points, combined, in the same game. Any way you slice it, it’s rare air.

It was a sharp contrast to their performance in Games 1 and 2 when they combined to average 29 points on 39 per cent shooting. But once again, the Raptors’ best players left their game at the border combining for 27 points on 22 shots.

“I think we’ll be a lot better on what we want to do and how we want to handle those two guys,” James promised before Game 5. “Because they’re playing exceptional basketball. They’re 28-for-43 [in Game 4]. I mean, that’s top-of-the-tier numbers right there, and they both went for 30. We’ve got to be much better in our schemes and doing it a little bit harder as well.”

It worked perfectly. At the half the Raptors backcourt had combined for just 13 points on 14 shots and four turnovers. Before the game there was hope that the extra attention on their all-stars would leave open shots for their supporting cast.

It didn’t work out that way, not even close. It’s hard to pull an upset on the road when you can’t knock down a three and the Raptors were just 2-of-8 in the first two quarters.

There were plenty of less than thoughtful plays – leaving red-hot Channing Frye open for a corner three to collapse on a drive by Matthew Dellavedova was one; James Johnson forcing a drive against a set James with Patterson open for a three was another, with the resulting offensive foul being one of five Raptors first-quarter turnovers resulting in 10 Cavaliers points.

The breakdowns were plentiful. Such as when Lowry and Cory Joseph got confused in that vaunted Dellavedova-Richard Jefferson pick-and-roll combination, allowing a Jefferson dunk.

And that was all before things got really bad. The Raptors have been resilient from Day 1 of the regular season and have consistently picked themselves up from the floor during the post-season, where disappointments and frustration have had nearly equal billing with triumphs and high points.

The Raptors will be hoping they can will themselves to one more big moment at home in the playoffs. The ACC will be full and loud. The sad faces at Jurassic Park will return with renewed hope.

They were blown away in Cleveland, and then things got worse. These things happen.

The real question – if they can survive Game 6 – will be can they come to Cleveland and have a game still in the balance by the start of the second half? If they give themselves a chance to return the Q, can they give themselves a chance to do anything at all once they get here?

When submitting content, please abide by our submission guidelines, and avoid posting profanity, personal attacks or harassment. Should you violate our submissions guidelines, we reserve the right to remove your comments and block your account. Sportsnet reserves the right to close a story’s comment section at any time.