Raptors Beat the LeBron-less Cavaliers 87-81 at Home

The Raptors played their final preseason game at the Air Canada Centre on Sunday against the Cavaliers, who were without LeBron James and Kyrie Irving, winning 87-81. My game notes included "Dionte Christmas checks in for Joe Harris, who has five fouls" and "Quinn Cook breaks a 66-66 tie in the fourth quarter with a three" so just to be clear this was an exhibition game. Joe Carter sat courtside and tossed some kids size basketballs to fans during a timeout. Some fans received free movie passes to watch a screening of the new Paranormal Activity movie hosted by Patrick Patterson.

Aside from being a movie buff, Patterson is also in a battle with Luis Scola for the starting power forward position. Scola started alongside Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan, Jonas Valanciunas and DeMarre Carroll in this game and looked active, hitting jumpers in rhythm and findng Jonas Valanciunas down low on a nice high low feed in the first quarter. It's easy to envision the Carroll-Scola-Valanciunas trio starting for this team, with Patterson off the bench. Scola finished with eight points, three rebounds and one steal in 15 minutes. Patterson, who hit one of his four three-pointer attempts, had just five points in 17 minutes, but was very active on the defensive end.

After a torrid start to the preseason, Kyle Lowry slowed down with six points on 2-for-11 shooting in 26 minutes of play. Valanciunas was the most impressive among the starters, looking comfortable on the low block, shooting 6-for-9 with 12 points in 22 minutes. Otherwise, Bismack Biyombo showed off his rim protection skills in the first half, while Cory Joseph had a strong effort off the bench.

The Raptors will close out their preseason schedule on Friday in Montreal against the Washington Wizards.