Fan Duel Toronto Raptors

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Pre-game news and notes: ‘Nobody’s giving us a chance, so there shouldn’t be any pressure’

Ayy. Let's get this money.

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The Toronto Raptors will tip off in a conference final game for the first time ever in just over an hour. They’re heavy, heavy underdogs, but that’s how they like it. We’ve hit you with as much preview content as possible in the quick turnaround between series, so go back and check those pieces out for more analysis, and let’s dive right in.

The game tips off at 8:30 p.m. from Quicken Loans Arena. ESPN has the game in the U.S., with Mike Breen, Jeff Van Gundy, Mark Jackson, and Doris Burke on the call, while Sportsnet has the Canadian broadcast and TSN 1050 has radio rights. Scott Foster, Sean Corbin, and Jason Phillips are the officials.

Required reading
Here’s what you need ahead of Game 1, assuming you haven’t been keeping up.

*I’ve got a series preview Q&A with Fear the Sword right here, a much-too-long Game 1/series preview right here, and then the podcasters (Will and Zarar, Talking Raptors) have you covered, too.
*With a more specific focus, Zarar went over some of Cleveland’s pet plays, and Cooper took a look at some of what we saw in the regular season series.
*There hasn’t been a ton of chatter ahead of tonight’s game beyond what you’d expect. The Raptors have a ton of respect for LeBron James, but they’re coming for a fight.
*Remembering to mention this time: I’ve been doing semi-occasional TV spots for CTV during the playoffs. I helped preview tonight’s game, and you can find the video (plus all my usual radio hits) here.

And now let RR alum William Lou get you fired up with something more emotional. I disagree with the general outrage today, but this is a really well-written piece on the general treatment of the Raptors over the past few days, weeks, years. And this was a really cool story from our dude Alex Wong about the process behind playoff t-shirts.

Raptors updates
Head coach Dwane Casey more or less did so Sunday and Monday, but the team officially ruled Jonas Valanciunas for the game earlier today. Per the team’s update, his status will be evaluated on a daily basis and updated as appropriate,” basically meaning he’s day-to-day at this point. As of Monday, he still hadn’t participated in basketball activities, so it’s tough to see him suiting up for Game 2, either. If he comes back at any point, that could be a big boost, forcing Cleveland to alter their defensive gameplan some and making life a little easier on Toronto’s guards (though he’s in for a challenge on defense when the Cavs go smaller, too).

Raptors projected rotation
PG: Kyle Lowry, Cory Joseph, (Delon Wright)
SG: DeMar DeRozan, T.J. Ross, (Norman Powell)
SF: DeMarre Carroll, James Johnson, (Bruno Caboclo)
PF: Patrick Patterson, (Luis Scola)
C: Bismack Biyombo, Jason Thompson, Lucas Nogueira, (Jonas Valanciunas)

We went over most of the questions facing Toronto from a rotation perspective in the pre-game. Namely, who is the backup option on James, and who the backup center is. What’s above is our best guess, and I’m assuming the starters stay the same, but read the preview content for more detail.

Check back before tip off to confirm the starters.

Cavaliers updates

Cavaliers projected rotation
PG: Kyrie Irving, Matthew Dellavedova, (Mo Williams)
SG: J.R. Smith, Iman Shumpert, (Dahntay Jones), (Jordan McRae)
SF: LeBron James, Richard Jefferson
PF: Kevin Love, (James Jones)
C: Tristan Thompson, Channing Frye, (Timofey Mozgov), (Sasha Kaun)

Again, we went into detail in the series preview content. The biggest question the Cavs may be facing outside of how to handle Lowry and DeRozan from a defensive perspective is how much to play James at the four. As deadly as their spread attack is, the Raptors might be fine with more power forward James – Carroll can slide over, Patterson and Johnson can check him there, and it would let Biyombo shift on to a corner shooter instead of guarding the screener. That makes slightly less use of Biyombo’s one-on-one defense, but it puts him in good help-and-recover position and a good spot for defensive rebounds. Meanwhile, Patterson and Carroll can maintain the team’s size, switchability, and attack the pick-and-roll any number of ways. It will be interesting to see what Casey does defensively when James goes to the four.

In eight playoff games, the Cavs were a plus-16 in 215 minutes with James at the three, plus-34 in 92 minutes with him at the four, and even in two minutes with him at the five.

Check back for an update on the official starters.

Pre-game news and notes
*There’s a fun little bit of history between Tyronn Lue and Kyle Lowry. Apparently, Lowry wanted to get crossed up and stepped over before he realized he has actual talent (heyo!)


*There’s also some history with Lue and the Raptors.


*Expect Lue to throw some different looks at Lowry (and DeRozan) to keep them out of rhythm.


*It’s simpler going the other way.


*Casey continues to leverage the doubt/underdog guard, and promises no fear.

Assorted
*The Q looks pretty dope.


*The mayor wrote a letter to CBS over a pre-existing poll that they FORGOT TO UPDATE that everyone has made a huge deal over. It made us look terribly sensitive and whiny, and really just gave Cleveland a lot of additional ammunition in the trash talk department, if they choose to use it.


*We all the North, even when We from the South:


*Streaks are meant to be broken. Just ask The Undertaker and honorary Canadian Brock Lesnar.

The line
Game 1: Cavaliers -10.5
Series: Cavaliers -1200

I think the Game 1 line is pretty off. I can’t see the Raptors coming out flat or the Cavs coming out on fire given where each team is coming from over the last few days. The Raptors may be a little tired, I guess, but this has never been a team for which it’s safe to bet on them getting blown out. As for the series price, well, that’s an implied win probability of about 92 percent, or about infinity times more respect than CBS is giving the Raptors.

Again, we come back to the Raptors being major underdogs. That’s fine, reasonable, understandable, and so on. It’s also probably exactly where the Raptors want to be, bet against once more, pressure off, and with whiteboard material. I really don’t think the Raptors are going to lay down and die. And I hope I’m wrong about them just keeping it close rather than winning the opening salvo.

Cavaliers 103, Raptors 98

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