Toronto Raptors @ Cleveland Cavaliers
Saturday, April 18, 2026 at 1:00 PM ET
Rocket Arena, Cleveland, OH | Game ID: 42500131
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Final
CLE 35 26 36 29 126TOR 31 23 22 37 113
ESPN UpdateESPN Update
Mitchell scores 32 as Cavaliers defeat Raptors 126-113 in Game 1 of East first-round series
CLEVELAND -- — Donovan Mitchell scored 32 points, Max Strus had 24 off the bench and the Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Toronto Raptors 126-113 on Saturday in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series.
James Harden had 22 points and 10 assists while Evan Mobley had 17 and seven rebounds for fourth-seeded Cleveland, which hosts Game 2 on Monday night.
It was a playoff career high in points for Strus, who missed the first 67 games this season with a broken left foot that occurred during offseason training.
“When you see the work he’s put in all season, it’s for this moment, right? This is a regular occurrence with Max, maybe not 24 (points), but just the energy level and boost he gives us,” said Mitchell, who has scored at least 30 points in an NBA-record nine straight series openers. “You give him credit for his journey, it can be a lot on the mental for him to continue to stick with it.”
RJ Barrett scored 24 points and Scottie Barnes had 21 for the Raptors, who were playing in their first playoff game since 2022. Toronto was missing point guard Immanuel Quickley because of a mild right hamstring strain.
Jamal Shead started in place of Quickley and had 17 points, including five 3-pointers.
Barrett's 3-pointer pulled the Raptors to within 45-41 before Cleveland broke it open with a 27-9 run over the last 1:11 of the second quarter and first seven minutes of the third.
Strus scored 11 points during the spurt and made all three of his 3-pointers as the Cavaliers went 10 of 16 from the floor, including 5 of 8 beyond the arc.
“We just kept saying in the timeouts (during the first half to) stay with it. We’re going to get separation,” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said. “We needed that separation for our confidence. Going into halftime if you are down, it’s a harder conversation with the players to trust what we’re doing.”
Cleveland's largest lead was 24 points (100-76) on Sam Merrill 's 3-pointer 13 seconds into the fourth quarter.
Toronto came into the game averaging a league-leading 18.9 points per game, but Cleveland held them to a season-low three.
“If we allow our opponent to score 126 points, it’s going to be tough to beat them," Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic said. "Unfortunately, we had a very bad start to the third quarter with lack of execution. We were way too stagnant tonight.”
TOR KarmaHide StintsShow StintsHide PMShow PMHide KarmaShow KarmaHide ScoresShow Scores
Who
Who is who
the initials in the Players column
CLEDM D. Mitchell
DS D. Schröder
DW D. Wade
EM E. Mobley
JA J. Allen
JH J. Harden
JT J. Tyson
KE K. Ellis
LN L. Nance Jr.
MS M. Strus
NT N. Tomlin
SM S. Merrill
SC Schroder
TORAL A. Lawson
BI B. Ingram
CM C. Murray-Boyles
GD G. Dick
JB J. Battle
JM J. Mogbo
JP J. Poeltl
JS J. Shead
JW J. Walter
RB R. Barrett
SB S. Barnes
SM S. Mamukelashvili
TJ T. Jackson-Davis
CLE/TOR the team itself, not a player
-- the feed named nobody
What
What happened
the codes in the Events column
M2 / M3 made 2 / made 3
X2 / X3 missed 2 / missed 3
FT / X1 free throw made / missed
AST assist
OR / DR offensive / defensive rebound
STL steal
BLK block
TO turnover
FL foul
OF offensive foul — ends the possession
VIOL violation
JUMP jump ball
TM timeout
IR instant replay
HE heave at the buzzer, filed to the team
Where
Where a shot came from
the middle field of M3.LW.25
RM at the rim inside 4 ft
RC right corner
RW right wing
SO straight on
LW left wing
LC left corner
M3.LW.25 made 3, left wing, 25 ft
X2.RM.01 missed 2, at the rim, 1 ft
When
When it happened
the Offset column
one number per event, in the Events order:
whole seconds from the start of the
possession to that event
Events FL X3.RC.23 OR M2.RM.01
Offset 0 18 22 24
the foul opens the possession at 0s;
the putback ends it at 24s, which is
the possession's own Dur