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TSN Raptors Reporter

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TORONTO - With just about everything stacked against them, not limited to the odds and officiating, the Raptors had to play a perfect game to steal one from the heavily favoured Cleveland Cavaliers.

If they weren't at their best on Saturday, they were as close to it as they've been this spring. The result: an unlikely 99-84 Game 3 win to spoil Cleveland's perfect post-season.

How did this happen? A fair question given the optics going into it. Toronto had dropped the first two contests by 50 points in what was already being dubbed the most lopsided Conference Finals match-up ever. Understandably, most had already penciled in the sweep, but the Raptors had other plans.

"I don't know if we have to get hit upside the head before we play, but again, we have to treat every game like it's Game 7 almost and have people write us off," Dwane Casey said. "It's a long series. It's not over with yet, but everybody thought we were going to get swept. I think that fuels us, and if that's what it takes, so be it. We've got to continue to read those things about us."

Last we saw them, the Raptors looked cooked. They didn't quit in Cleveland on Thursday, as some suggested, but they certainly appeared to be defeated. Nothing was going right - shots weren't falling, the calls weren't going their way - and they fell apart. They could have very easily done the same at home in Game 3.

After being whistled for 31 fouls, to Cleveland's 16, in Game 2, the Raptors were once again on the wrong end of a significant disparity. Called for 17, with the Cavs just picking up 10, this was even more glaring considering how thoroughly the Raptors outplayed and outworked the opposition. It was a comedy of errors from the officiating crew.

Kyle Lowry's three early fouls, which relegated him to the bench for most of the first half, included a block that should have been called a charge on Kyrie Irving and a shove in the back embellished by the much stronger LeBron James. The half ended with a skirmish that saw James hit by an inadvertent elbow from teammate Tristan Thompson, causing him to drop like a sack of potatoes thinking the contact was courtesy of DeMarre Carroll, who was originally assigned a technical foul, later rescinded.

Bismack Biyombo's block on James, which replays proved to be clean, was called a foul. Later, his takedown of the King - a hard foul - was ruled a flagrant.

The Cavaliers are good enough, James is good enough, that they should be able to win this series handily without the help of external forces. Of course, Cleveland did not win either of the first two games because of the officiating - they won because they were the better team - and, despite their best efforts, the referees didn't alter the result of Game 3. That said, through 144 minutes of basketball in this series, one the Raptors are not supposed to win, the officials have made themselves a story.

Casey, a coach who generally watches what he says about the league's officials - and what he doesn't say - very closely, took the onus on himself after the game, standing up for his team and sending a message to the NBA. The Raptors, like the rest of us, have noticed.

"I said it before the game, we have the greatest officials in the league," said Casey. "But how you can miss fouls like that and calls like that, I can't see it. I've been in this league a long time, in college basketball a long time, but again, there's got to be consistency. The same foul on one end has got to be the same foul on the other."

"I've been on both sides of it," he continued later. "I've been where the whistle has been in favor of you, but for whatever reason, and again, I understand we have great officials, it's a hard game to call, but some of those fouls are unbelievable."

Casey did his best to walk the line, aiming to be as respectful as possible in his criticism, but this isn't his first rodeo. He knows he the league works and he's surely expecting to hear from its office on Sunday. By the end of his press conference, he had used four un-related questions to question the validity of the game's officials, most of it unprompted. He'll likely be fined for his comments but, even if it makes the slightest difference on court in the coming games, it'll be some of the best money he's ever spent, and the organization would almost certainly reimburse him.

One thing Toronto's head coach always says, and one of the biggest reasons he's usually hesitant to aim the spotlight at the officials, is that it can't be an excuse. On Saturday, it wasn't. The Raptors played through it. Biyombo, who was on the receiving end of several missed calls, played through it.

Biyombo didn't score his first point until the end of the third quarter, he didn't record his first field goal until the fourth, yet there aren't many players in the NBA that can impact a game the way he did without scoring. The Raptors' fill-in starting centre grabbed 26 rebounds, which broke a franchise record for most in a single game - regular season or players - that he had set earlier this year. He had four blocks, changed shots at the rim and sparked the sellout crowd and his teammates with that trademark passion, which included - as always - the finger wag, something he says he had cleared with Dikembe Mutombo.

"I love him," Biyombo said of Mutombo, second on the NBA's all-time shot block list. "He's like my big brother, and I've had several conversations about him, especially defensively, how he was able to impact the game, and of course once he gave me permission to use his finger wag, then I guess I just want to leave his legacy and make sure that I show him some love as my big brother."

"Biz was amazing," said Cory Joseph. "It felt like he got every rebound out there. The energy he brings is unbelievable, second opportunities he gives us, blocked shots, mistakes that he's covering up for us. He's a hell of a defender, up there in the top of the league."

Biyombo was also critical of the officiating. With the game already decided, he took a cheap shot to the groin area late in the fourth quarter, moments after James Jones got hit with a technical foul for shoving Patrick Patterson.

"I got hit in an area that I wasn't supposed to get hit on, or a private area, so to speak," said Biyombo. "I mean, whenever the league has a chance they will probably want to take a look at that. That's all I can say on that one."

"I don't see a difference between the way I get fouled when I get offensive rebounds and the [flagrant] foul that I committed. It's not like I did it toward somebody. I never played this game toward nobody, and I get fouled pretty much the same way, and I don't fall on the ground badly. With that being said, some calls are going to be called and some calls are not going to be called, and to me I just keep playing on, and whatever happens happens."

Most expect the Cavs will come back strong from the first bit of adversity they've faced here in the playoffs and put this away in short order. No one expects the Raptors to do much more damage but, it should be noted, nobody expected them to do this much damage. They've always felt like it's them against the world and, now more then ever, that approach should serve them well.