Game Night Observations: Evan Mobley's Aggression, Jaylon Tyson's Role and Early Lessons

The Cleveland Cavaliers are 3-3 and the sky isn't falling.

CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Cavaliers, or a shell of who the Cleveland Cavaliers are supposed to be, lost to the Toronto Raptors on Friday night 112-101 at Rocket Arena.

Friday night’s game saw the Cavaliers without five of their top eight players, with Darius Garland (toe), Max Strus (foot), Sam Merrill (hip), Jarrett Allen (fractured finger) and Donovan Mitchell (hamstring) all inactive. A sixth player, Lonzo Ball, is on a minutes restriction as the team does everything to ensure that, given his extensive injury history, is healthy when the postseason arrives in April.

That’s a tough hand to be dealt for any team.

The best thing that the Cavs could do was make the best of a tough situation, and despite not finding a way to win the basketball game, that’s what they did on Friday night.

“I love how we competed. That was the baseline tonight,” Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson said after the game. “We’re gonna go out and we’re gonna make mistakes. It’s not gonna be perfect. We got a lot of guys in different roles, you know, and so I liked our process.”