Collin Murray-Boyles delivered one of the biggest performances of the night as the Toronto Raptors beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 126-104 in Game 3 on Thursday at Scotiabank Arena.
The rookie finished with 22 points, becoming the first Raptors rookie to score 20 or more in a playoff game, but he said the milestone meant less than the result.
“Feel the same as before the game. It don’t really matter to me. Just got to do what I got to do to help the team win.”
Murray-Boyles credited the atmosphere in Toronto for helping the Raptors respond after dropping the first two games of the series.
“Especially from the fans. It’s my first time being at something like this and I don’t think it could have been any better,” he said. “We felt it, everybody on the bench felt it. Yeah, it really helped us tonight.”
Toronto matched Cleveland’s physicality and then pushed past it in the second half, with Murray-Boyles describing the team’s focus as simple and direct.
“We’ve just been trying to find a game plan on how to make it easier for us and make it harder for them,” he said. “We did a little bit of that tonight.”
The rookie said the Raptors still have adjustments to make, even after a win that cut the Cavaliers’ series lead to 2-1.
“Still have a lot of things we have to fix, still had a lot of hiccups,” Murray-Boyles said. “But this is a really good game. A lot of film to watch. See what we did good, see what we can work on.”
His most productive stretch came in the third quarter, when he attacked Cleveland’s sagging bigs and made plays on both ends.
“Being active,” Murray-Boyles said. “Just being aggressive. I’ve been trying to get more aggressive. We’ve been working on it.”
He explained that Toronto’s spacing and interior pressure helped open his driving lanes. “Just attacking their bigs when they’re sagging off, just try to take up that space as much as possible to limit their rim protection.”
Murray-Boyles also praised the way Scottie Barnes created pressure on the defense, giving him cleaner openings around the rim.
“He puts pressure on the rim,” he said. “He draws in a lot of attention.”
The rookie’s confidence has carried through three games, and he said that starts with not backing down from the stage. “Really just not being afraid of the moment,” Murray-Boyles said.
Toronto’s next chance to even the series comes Sunday, and Murray-Boyles said the message remains the same.
“Go back, watch the film, see what we can get better at,” he said. “We got a long way to go.”
