The Cleveland Cavaliers will be without Matthew Dellavedova when they take on the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday night.
Dellavedova is dealing with a calf injury, one that hadn’t cost him any time yet. The loss isn’t disastrous for the Cavs, who will get Mo Williams back from a three-game absence, though Jared Cunningham will draw the start.
The biggest part of the Dellavedova loss is that the Cavs lose their second-most used lineup (Dellavedova-Smith-James-Love-Thompson), one that has melted opponent faces so far this season. Dellavedova is averaging 7.9 points, 2.3 rebounds, and 5.9 assists in nearly 27 minutes a night, knocking down 38.5 percent of his threes in the process. He’s taken pretty major strides from a season ago, expanding his game beyond open triples and annoying hustle plays.
The Raptors have moved from 1.5-point underdogs to three-point underdogs since this morning, settling in at the line I expected in the pre-game. You can check out the full game preview here.
Sorry for the delayed update, but it’s because it’s Drake Night 3 and Drake’s media availability, while entertaining, ran late. Drake fielded several questions, revealing there are plans for a Norm Kelly mix tape ahead of Views From the Six, that he considers LeBron James “like a brother” but his focus is on the Raptors tonight, and that he would do Adele’s laundry if she wanted. Drake also said he called general manager Masai Ujiri – who even did a little Hotline Bling dancing – to see how Jonas Valanciunas was doing the night he was hurt.
It was all quite weird but fun, which is kind of the point tonight.
