Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell reacts after an assist during the first half in Game 1 of a first-round NBA playoffs basketball series against the Toronto Raptors, Saturday, April 18, 2026, In Cleveland. (AP Photo/David Dermer)

CLEVELAND — Donovan Mitchell scored 32 points, Max Strus had 24 off the bench and the Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Toronto Raptors 126-113 on Saturday in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series.

James Harden had 22 points and 10 assists while Evan Mobley had 17 and seven rebounds for fourth-seeded Cleveland, which hosts Game 2 on Monday night.

It was a playoff career high in points for Strus, who missed the first 67 games this season with a broken left foot that occurred during offseason training.

“When you see the work he’s put in all season, it’s for this moment, right? This is a regular occurrence with Max, maybe not 24 (points), but just the energy level and boost he gives us,” said Mitchell, who has scored at least 30 points in an NBA-record nine straight series openers. “You give him credit for his journey, it can be a lot on the mental for him to continue to stick with it.”

RJ Barrett scored 24 points and Scottie Barnes had 21 for the Raptors, who were playing in their first playoff game since 2022. Toronto was missing point guard Immanuel Quickley because of a mild right hamstring strain.

Jamal Shead started in place of Quickley and had 17 points, including five 3-pointers.

Barrett’s 3-pointer pulled the Raptors to within 45-41 before Cleveland broke it open with a 27-9 run over the last 1:11 of the second quarter and first seven minutes of the third.

Strus scored 11 points during the spurt and made all three of his 3-pointers as the Cavaliers went 10 of 16 from the floor, including 5 of 8 beyond the arc.

“We just kept saying in the timeouts (during the first half to) stay with it. We’re going to get separation,” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said. “We needed that separation for our confidence. Going into halftime if you are down, it’s a harder conversation with the players to trust what we’re doing.”

Cleveland’s largest lead was 24 points (100-76) on Sam Merrill’s 3-pointer 13 seconds into the fourth quarter.

Toronto came into the game averaging a league-leading 18.9 points per game, but Cleveland held them to a season-low three.

“If we allow our opponent to score 126 points, it’s going to be tough to beat them,” Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic said. “Unfortunately, we had a very bad start to the third quarter with lack of execution. We were way too stagnant tonight.”

MITCHELL EXTENDS PLAYOFF STREAK

Mitchell has more support on the Cavaliers roster going into this year’s postseason run.

But even with the deeper roster, Mitchell still has the mentality of delivering the statement in the first game of a series.

The All-Star guard did that again Saturday afternoon with a game-high 32 points in the Cavaliers’ 126-113 victory over the Toronto Raptors in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference first-round series.

It is an NBA-record nine straight games in which Mitchell has scored at least 30 points in a series opener.

“It’s not something like I’m searching for,” said Mitchell of trying to put up at least 30 to start a series. “It’s just something that I’m playing my game. Just trying to set a tone of aggression by getting downhill, taking the open shots, taking what’s given to me and obviously making the defense have to react.”

Mitchell’s streak began with the Utah Jazz during the 2020 playoffs — held at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, during the COVID-19 pandemic — when he scored 57 points against the Denver Nuggets. That remains a Jazz playoff record and the third-highest-scoring performance in NBA postseason history.

Mitchell is 5-4 during this run in series openers, including 3-3 with Cleveland since coming over in a trade from Utah in September 2022.

James Harden, who was acquired from the LA Clippers in a trade-deadline shocker, helped settle the Cavaliers during a close first half, but it was Mitchell and Max Strus who helped deliver the knockout blows to the Raptors in the second half.

Mitchell had 13 points in the first half to Harden’s 15 as the Cavaliers were up 61-54 at halftime. Mitchell scored 11 and Strus added eight as Cleveland dominated the third quarter and were up by 21 going into the final 12 minutes.

“That’s his job. That’s what he gets paid the big bucks for being aggressive, taking shots and doing his thing. We understand that, so our job is to just go out there and fulfill the roles and do other things to impact the game,” Harden said. “I think for me, it’s trying to get more assists and trying to get into the paint. We’ve got shooting, we’ve got bigs who are versatile and athletic. My job is to get them the ball.”

Harden finished with 22 points and 10 assists that led to 23 points. Six of the assists went to center Jarrett Allen and forward Evan Mobley.

Mitchell’s 30th point came on a driving layup with 9:28 remaining to extend Cleveland’s lead to 106-84. The nine-year veteran shot 7 of 13 from inside the paint, which is something that pleased coach Kenny Atkinson.

“I said that before the game, how we’ve changed our mindset where we’ve become more rim- and paint-oriented. Don, he can try to do those pirouette 3s, but I think he was locked in on getting to the rim and made some really good decisions,” Atkinson said.

Mitchell is averaging 33.1 points in series openers, second-highest in NBA history for a player who has taken part in at least 10 postseason series. His playoff average of 28.4 points is tied with LeBron James for sixth-best among players with at least 50 games.

“I thought we handled the environment and the crowd pretty well. They had a lot of guys scoring at a high rate and they got a lot of easy shots, getting to the rim and dunks,” said Toronto’s Scottie Barnes, who scored 21 points.