At the end of regulation in Game 1 against the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Toronto Raptors missed four straight looks — including two point-blank tip shots — that could have won them the game. Toronto ended up losing, 113-112, in overtime, and they now trail 1-0 against the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
The Raptors missed 5 shots in the final 7 seconds and lost to the Cavaliers in Game 1
This was an enormous missed opportunity.
Here was the possession where the Raptors easily could have gone ahead.
The three-pointer from Fred VanVleet was a good look that just didn’t drop. The rushed shot from DeMar DeRozan was strange, since he must have thought there was less time on the clock than there actually as. Still, it rolled all the way around the rim. C.J. Miles then missed a couple tap-ins, and you can understand why, since it looked like he didn’t get all of the ball and wasn’t batting them with any real control. But then Jonas Valanciunas blew an extremely makable putback, and that one will hurt.
Here’s how it looked like in the play-by-play.
Yikes.
It was vaguely reminiscent of one famous NBA playoff moment, when Charles Smith was blocked four straight times at the rim in Game 5 of the 1993 Eastern Conference finals. In grainy video, here’s that infamous moment, something caused by Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Horace Grant.
The Knicks went down 3-2 because of that game and ended up losing in six. Toronto can hope for better results, but they certainly blew a great chance to go ahead for the first time ever in a series against the Cavaliers.
