East Conf. Semis - Game 3: Toronto Raptors 103-105 Cleveland Cavaliers - 5 Talking Points

#2 DeMar DeRozan flops

JR Smith and DeMar DeRozan

Kyle Lowry showed up for Game 3, I wish I could say the same about DeRozan. What on Earth was that performance?

DeMar DeRozan was absolutely awful in this one, finishing with just 8 points on 3/12 shooting. For whatever reason, DeMar keeps coming up short whenever he goes up against Cleveland. It got bad enough to the point that Dwane Casey benched him for the entire 4th quarter. It did seem to work as everyone else chipped in as the Raptors roared back into this one.

It was so disappointing that on a night when the Raptors showed so much heart, their best player put in one of the worst performances of his career. There is no doubt in my mind that if he had shown up for this game, we'd be looking at a completely different outcome and we'd potentially have a proper series to look forward to.

Instead, the Raptors are down 3-0 and are in all likelihood about to get swept.