TORONTO -- When Channing Frye looks at the faces of the Toronto Raptors, beaming with confidence after tying the Eastern Conference finals series with the Cleveland Cavaliers 2-2 following a stirring 105-99 win on Monday, he can’t but help be reminded of being in the same spot six years ago.
Back in the 2010 Western Conference finals, it was Frye’s underdog Phoenix Suns team that bounced back to tie the heavily favored Los Angeles Lakers -- led Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol -- at 2-2, after losing the first two games of the series.
“It’s not a good feeling,” Frye told ESPN.com when asked what it’s like to be on the other side, as the favorite trying to fend off the challenger. “You feel like the weight of the world is off you, because no one -- I’m not going to say, 'pays attention to you,' but you hear this negativity and it kind of fires you up and gets you to say, ‘Screw it, we’re not supposed to win anyways, so let’s go for it.’”
Think about how this series has turned in what might be the toughest trip to Toronto for anyone since Jimi Hendrix was busted by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police at the Toronto International Airport in 1969.
Cleveland went from winning Games 1 and 2 by a combined 50 points to losing Games 3 and 4 by a combined 21. Toronto went from having Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan fail to combine to shoot even a single free throw between them for the first time of their careers in Game 1 to scoring more points combined than they ever have before with 67 in Game 4 (Lowry had 35; DeRozan, 32).
And that negativity that was once squarely aimed at the Raptors for serving as nothing but a speed bump for the Cavs -- who seemed destined to make a repeat trip to the NBA Finals with relative ease -- has now been redirected toward Cleveland.
Remember the Kevin Love who took the playoffs by storm, ripping off eight straight double-doubles through those sweeps of Detroit and Atlanta? He had a total of 13 points on 5-for-23 shooting and 11 rebounds in Games 3 and 4. He was benched in the fourth quarter of both games. And, adding to the intrigue, he stepped on a referee’s foot late in the third quarter, causing his knee to buckle.
Remember the Tristan Thompson who filled in for an injured Love last postseason? His versatility on defense and being able to step out on the pick-and-roll -- while also giving resistance at the rim and gobbling up every rebound in sight -- made him the Cavs' second most important player after LeBron James in that run. Well, that guy is being thoroughly outplayed by Toronto’s Thompson equivalent, Bismack Biyombo, who totaled 40 rebounds and seven blocks over the past two games to Thompson’s 17 and two.
Remember the defense that seemed to be getting stronger as the playoffs wore on, keeping the Raptors below 90 points in both Games 1 and 2? What was happening on that end in Game 4?
“Obviously nothing,” Frye said. “They shot 54 percent. We’ve just got to look at the film and do better. That’s some bulls---.”
As prevailing as that sentiment might seem right now, there is still plenty of hope for the Cavs. They have history on their side, as James is 17-0 all time in series in which his team started off with a 2-0 lead.
“I am a confident guy,” James said after another strong game with 29 points, nine rebounds, six assists and two steals. “I’m always confident in my ability and what I can bring to my team, whatever the case may be, whatever the circumstances are. Going back home, we have to play a lot better, and I think we will.”
That confidence is shared by James’ longtime teammate, James Jones, who is trying to make a sixth straight trip to the Finals alongside him.
“It’s the playoffs, man,” Jones told ESPN.com. “Never as good as it seems. Never as bad as it feels.”
His point can be made by looking at how Game 4 played out. Cleveland trailed by 16 at the half while shooting just 3-for-22 from 3. Yet the Cavs needed just 18 minutes to turn things back in their favor, taking a three-point lead halfway through the fourth after scoring on 14 straight possessions, as James, Frye and Richard Jefferson ran a three-man game to perfection on the offensive end.
It was unsustainable, however. A couple of failed defensive possessions late, combined with their shooting regressing to the mean, did the Cavs in.
“We just made some defensive mistakes that you can’t do down the stretch,” said Cavs coach Tyronn Lue.
He was referring to Iman Shumpert overplaying Lowry on one possession and getting beat on a backdoor play, as well as a couple of the Cavs players failing to find a man on another play that led to an easy offensive rebound for Biyombo.
“They cost us each time we made a mistake," Lue said. "They made us pay.”
The ultimate cost of the trip up to Toronto for the Cavs was the suddenly shrinking margin for error that they had fought so hard to increase all season by securing the No. 1 seed in the East, keeping everyone healthy and fortifying the roster at the trade deadline with someone like Frye.
It’s a best-of-three series now. Sure, Cleveland has home-court advantage for it, but when things are this close -- with so much at stake -- crazy things can happen.
The Suns nearly kept their magic rolling in Game 5 back in 2010, losing on a Metta World Peace putback at the buzzer on a Bryant air ball.
The Raptors are the team breathing down the Cavs’ necks now, just like the Suns did to those Lakers.
L.A. got a favorable bounce and closed it out on the road in Game 6 before going on to win the championship, but the Lakers' glory came so close to being cut short by a band of overachievers who believed in one another.
Frye is hoping he gets to be on the other end this time around -- as the favorite that staves off a scare en route to the ultimate step.
“This s--- doesn’t come by very often,” Frye said. “We’re close. We’re close to doing something special and getting the opportunity to do something special, so we need to lock in and just pick our game up. Step it up to the next level.
“I think we can do it.”