Cavaliers’ dominance over Raptors doesn’t carry into season opener

TORONTO — Most of his teammates had left for the bus by the time Kevin Love emerged from the shower.

The Cavaliers star said he needed to wash away the “ugliness” of Wednesday’s 116-104 loss to the Toronto Raptors in the season opener for both teams. He said it with a smile, then plonked himself down in front of the largest locker in the visitors’ dressing room at Scotiabank Arena — the one LeBron James used to use when Cleveland came to town.

“It felt like we hadn’t played in a while. It didn’t seem like us … we just didn’t play our brand of basketball,” Love said.

Cleveland was missing Larry Nance Jr. (sprained ankle) and J.R. Smith (elbow soreness). Love, meanwhile, hadn’t played since Oct. 2 because of a foot issue.

Love made just one of nine shots in the first half. But he finished with 21 points to lead the Cavs on 5-of-18 shooting, thanks in part to 10 free throws.

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“We made some mistakes. That’s to be expected first game,” said Cleveland coach Tyronn Lue. “It really hurt us Kevin being out of rhythm. He missed about six or seven layups under the basket. He just hasn’t played since the first game of pre-season.

“That was kind of rough on him and kind of rough on us. But overall I thought we competed and kept fighting and kept scrapping a little better in the second half.”

The Cavaliers, the Raptors’ bogeyman with James in charge, arrived having won 15 of their last 17 meetings with Toronto dating back to May 2016. Including the last three playoffs, Cleveland was 21-7 against Toronto prior to Wednesday.

Toronto ate a little into that record thanks to a combined 51 points from newcomer Kawhi Leonard and point guard Kyle Lowry.

Asked if he saw a different Raptors squad, Lue said simply “No.”

But he said he saw Toronto as a top No. 1 or No. 2 seed in the East.

“They have the same talent,” he said. “I mean they added Kawhi Leonard. He and DeMar DeRozan (now a San Antonio Spur) both can score the ball pretty equally. But (Leonard)’s a two-way player — he can guard forwards, he can guard Kevin (Love), you can put him on different players and guard the point guards. So that makes him a little versatile. But they still have the same roster. I think Kyle Lowry’s playing at a high level. He was really good tonight.

“They’re going to be a good team.”

Added Cavs forward Kyle Korver: “They’ve got a bunch of versatile pieces, probably more so than last year.”

“You could see some things that they were trying to do. I don’t think it was dramatic differences from who they were quite yet. But you could see where they’re trying to go and it’s going to be really tough trying to guard them.” 

The Cavs trailed by 20 but got to with seven points in the final quarter.

“We just couldn’t get over the hump,” said Love.

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Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press