CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Cavaliers have the largest payroll in the NBA — and even bigger dreams.
Yet they found themselves tied in the first round of the playoffs at two games apiece with a team that needed help on the final day of the regular season to get to the No. 5 seed, and were getting booed at home in Game 5.
Those dreams are still afloat and those second-apron salaries still worth it after Wednesday’s 125-120 win over the Toronto Raptors. Cleveland can be done with this series and move on to the next by winning Game 6 on Friday in Toronto.
How can the Cavs pull that off? Let’s count the ways.
No. 1: Cleveland coach Kenny Atkinson answered directly in his postgame remarks Wednesday.
“For us, it’s the possession game,” he said. “It really comes down to that. I think if we get more shots than them, we have a good chance.”
For three games now, the Cavs have been on the wrong side of “the possession game,” a formula of offensive rebounds, defensive takeaways and turnovers that can lead to more shots, or fewer shots, than the opponent.
In Games 3 and 4, their two losses in this series, Atkinson said the Cavs were minus-21 in the possession game. And in Game 5, which the Cavs won, they gave up 15 offensive rebounds and took 14 fewer shots than Toronto.
The turnovers evened out (both teams committed 15), but at halftime, Cleveland had committed 10 that led to a whopping 23 Toronto points. “Live-ball” turnovers, coming off steals, allowed the Raptors to dominate parts of the game in transition.
“I told them at halftime, those live-ball turnovers, it just fuels them, it fuels their attack,” Atkinson said.
The Cavs calmed down considerably in the second half, committing just five more turnovers. James Harden, one of the stars of the night, had six and has 21 over the last three games. He said the Cavs were able to limit their mistakes by “giving the ball to Dennis Schröder,” which was both a hat tip to the journeyman point guard for his enormous impact on the game, and a shot at himself for all the giveaways he’s had lately.
The Cavs are also getting brutalized on the glass, especially in Game 5, when they were outrebounded 48-35 overall. Harden and Evan Mobley had nine boards apiece, whereas the Raptors had five players with at least five rebounds.
Though Cleveland has Mobley and Jarrett Allen in its starting lineup and introduced Thomas Bryant into the series for extra size, the Cavs seem to play smaller than the Raptors do, or at least they have over the last three games.
“Our mentality going in there, being able to rebound the ball, got to be able to take care of it, otherwise we’ll be back here for Game 7,” Atkinson said.
Even Mobley’s hot shooting made a big difference for the Cavs in Game 5. (Jason Miller / Getty Images)
No. 2: Even if Cleveland loses the possession game, it has shown it can still win. But that would be easier to do on the road if the Cavs got more from Mobley and Allen.
Mobley had bounced back nicely from two rough outings in Toronto with 23 points — 16 in the second half — and three 3-pointers. The Cavs were featuring Allen in the first quarter of the first two games of this series but have since totally gone away from that. He was 4-of-5 shooting in Game 5 with just three rebounds, but he did add three blocks.
Mobley, meanwhile, recovered from shooting 8-of-25 in the two games in Toronto. If his Game 6 is similar to any of the three games he’s played in Cleveland, then the Cavs probably win. The same could probably be said if the Cavs reestablish Allen early on Friday; size should be an advantage for Cleveland in this series, and it was for two games.
“We need the big guys,” Schröder said. “JA and Evan Mobley are the key to our team because we have the two superstars (Mitchell and Harden), but those two big men are two of the top bigs in the league. So we gotta use them.”
LET HIM COOK. @evanmobley is 3-3 from deep and has 23PTS. #LetEmKnow https://t.co/WbJGuqssTl pic.twitter.com/ZjQWn1uR4P
— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) April 30, 2026
No. 3: Schröder played 19 total minutes in Toronto last weekend. He logged 21 crucial minutes in Game 5, scoring 11 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter. He was so good that Mitchell insisted Atkinson leave Schröder on the court (and Mitchell on the bench) when the coach would normally turn to his star guard to finish the game. Mitchell did return, alongside Schröder and Harden, for the final few minutes when the game tightened and the Cavs went small.
There is an adage that role players play better at home in the playoffs, but if Schröder is anywhere near as effective in Game 6 as he was Wednesday, the Cavs will be in good shape.
He wasn’t alone. Sam Merrill and Jaylon Tyson both made two 3s off the bench, and Dean Wade, who came off the bench for the first time in this series, still played 21 minutes in his usual role as defensive stopper. Scottie Barnes, for instance, was nowhere near as effective as he had been in Toronto, shooting 6-of-16, though he was also dealing with a minor leg injury.
“Our role players have to play basketball,” Atkinson said. “That’s part of this series. Every series, you have to figure out if they’re going to deny (Harden or Mitchell) or top-lock them 94 feet. Other guys got to make plays, and Jaylon is one of them.”
No. 4: Atkinson made two key rotational changes — putting Wade with the second unit and promoting Max Strus to the starting lineup — and on the surface they worked because the Cavs won. Atkinson also swapped Bryant into the second unit and did not play Keon Ellis.
The much more important move was to start Strus. Atkinson said Strus is more mobile and more of a playmaker on offense, which the Cavs needed because of the Raptors’ swarming defense. The way Cleveland wants to beat pressure is with more cutting and passing, and Wade is more of a spot-up shooter.
But the defense seemed to suffer. The Raptors cooled off in the second half and weren’t feasting on as many turnovers, but they still shot 46 percent from the field and 40 percent from 3-point range.
If Cleveland goes back to its original starting five, prioritizes defense and gets a little more offense from its best players in Game 6, it could be the better route.
No. 5: Finally, the Cavs could simply win Game 6 if Mitchell reemerges as the superstar he is. After two dominant games to begin the series, he has been pretty quiet. His outright struggles in Toronto, where he shot 13-of-38 in the two losses, moderately improved on Wednesday, but he was still 7 of 17 from the field.
If you’re Cleveland, you have to like being up in the series, 3-2, with Mitchell perhaps due for another 30-something-point outburst.
“They’re playing me to where I really can’t touch the ball,” Mitchell said. “I know who I am. I believe y’all know who I am. I think the biggest thing is just, how do we win again? I don’t even care (about scoring). We have the opportunity to close out the series. … I am going to take the shots I am given and make the plays I need to make to be efficient.”
Mitchell said it’s no longer about how many points he can score. The Raptors seem to disagree, with the attention they’re throwing at him defensively. Can they slow Mitchell down for a fourth consecutive game, with their season on the line?
If he looks like himself again, this series ends on Friday.
