 | P. Patterson 28 MIN | 3-8 FG | 1-4 3FG | 1-2 FT | 2 REB | 4 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 8 PTS | -16 +/-He picked a pretty bad time to go cold from long-range over the last few weeks. He’s still playing mostly well, but the Raptors need him to knock down those open pick-and-pop looks when he’s matched up with Kevin Love or Channing Frye. Not his greatest defensive night (that goes for everyone), but I was encouraged by how he attacked close-outs and kept the ball moving, at least. |  | |||||||
 | D. Carroll 20 MIN | 1-5 FG | 0-3 3FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 1 AST | 2 STL | 1 BLK | 1 TO | 2 PTS | -15 +/-This was not the Carroll who was able to slow LeBron James into slightly less efficient murder in last year’s playoffs. He’s looked better as the playoffs have gone along, but this was bad, full stop. Gave James the middle on the block, couldn’t contain in face-up situations, and didn’t offer much at the other end. The Raptors can’t afford to send a lot of help, so he has to be better, too. |  | |||||||
 | B. Biyombo 31 MIN | 5-5 FG | 0-0 3FG | 2-2 FT | 4 REB | 0 AST | 2 STL | 0 BLK | 2 TO | 12 PTS | -22 +/-The Cavs did a really nice job neutralizing Biyombo’s biggest assets by pulling him away from the rim. That’s tough on Biz, and the Raptors might need to adjust their defensive strategy (putting him on Shumpert when Cleveland goes to the bench, allowing him to help aggressively) to get the most out of him. He tried to bring the energy and was active everywhere, and he made the Cavs pay when the ball-handlers could pass their way out of extra attention. But, yeah, you know it’s a bad Biyombo night when the opponent scores 50-plus in the paint. |  | |||||||
 | K. Lowry 32 MIN | 4-14 FG | 0-7 3FG | 0-0 FT | 4 REB | 5 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 4 TO | 8 PTS | -16 +/-It’s a rare night that Kyle Lowry isn’t able to make a meaningful impact. With or without him, the Raptors struggled, although the 9-0 run the Cavs went on with Lowry on the bench to start the second remains telling. He may have begun trying to do a little too much from outside, which the Raptors need him to do, and he got a little sloppy as a result. He’ll bounce back. They need him to be great. | | |||||||
 | D. DeRozan 35 MIN | 9-17 FG | 0-1 3FG | 0-0 FT | 0 REB | 5 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 3 TO | 18 PTS | -22 +/-If there’s any positive takeaway, I suppose it’s that DeRozan managed 18 on 17 shots and was a willing, effective passer. I’m not sure some of the shots he took will drop again, and zero free throws is concerning (plus, the Cavs can put LeBron James on him if he heats up), but it was at least nice to see DeRozan aggressive and looking to dish. |  | |||||||
 | J. Johnson 20 MIN | 4-6 FG | 2-2 3FG | 0-0 FT | 4 REB | 1 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 2 TO | 10 PTS | -6 +/-Hey, a good James Johnson game! Hit a pair of corner threes, did a passable job on LeBron James, got to the rim off the ball, and kept the non-foul (necessary) miscues mostly to a minimum. Probably earned enough trust that he’s locked in as the backup James-checker now. This was encouraging. |  | |||||||
 | J. Thompson 6 MIN | 0-1 FG | 0-0 3FG | 0-0 FT | 0 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 0 PTS | -2 +/-Buried pretty deep in this one, and Casey clearly preferred to risk going small early on instead of staying semi-traditional. Thompson can cover some ground on defense but isn’t good enough to account for gumming things up a bit offensively (the Cavs will ignore him). Tough to see him playing a major role after a near-DNP-CD here. |  | |||||||
 | L. Scola 14 MIN | 1-2 FG | 1-1 3FG | 4-4 FT | 2 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 7 PTS | -7 +/-It probably wasn’t fair to ask much from him after sitting for so long, but he showed signs of life! This isn’t the best matchup for him because of Kevin Love and Channing Frye, but maybe he gets a look as the backup center for spot minutes when Thompson’s on the floor? Probably asking too much, but Casey will be reaching, anyway. | | |||||||
 | T. Ross 19 MIN | 1-5 FG | 1-3 3FG | 1-2 FT | 1 REB | 0 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 4 PTS | -23 +/-Watching James’ eyes light up when Terrence Ross picked him up in transition and James got the ball on the block was hilarious. Ross’ role in this series is tough to figure – his 3-point shooting is going to be leaned on (high-variance as a David!), but he can’t guard James and the Cavs pass far too well for him to get killed with back-cuts. He probably has a longer leash than all of you would like. |  | |||||||
 | L. Nogueira 6 MIN | 0-1 FG | 0-0 3FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 0 PTS | +0 +/-Like Thompson, this was probably a sign that he’s not in the plans much for this series, at least initially. In his case, it’s probably because Casey doesn’t know what he’ll get from him each night. Tonight, it was fine for garbage time. | | |||||||
 | C. Joseph 15 MIN | 1-6 FG | 0-2 3FG | 2-4 FT | 1 REB | 3 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 4 PTS | -20 +/-The Raptors need more out of him. Full stop. He struggled with Kyrie Irving in each regular season matchup, and he struggled with both Irving and Matthew Dellavedova in this one. He didn’t have much help or much space to operate in on offense, and he couldn’t manage around that extra attention. He also got his ankles broken. | | |||||||
 | D. Wright 10 MIN | 1-2 FG | 0-0 3FG | 5-6 FT | 1 REB | 0 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 7 PTS | -4 +/-At least someone took advantage of garbage time! The Cavs’ geriatric reserves had no answers for the young amoeba, who was aggressive from the moment he checked in. | | |||||||
 | N. Powell 6 MIN | 2-4 FG | 0-1 3FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 4 PTS | -2 +/-So, why didn’t he get a look before garbage time? I think he might be able to help slow Kyrie Irving some if Joseph’s having a bad night, and he’s big enough for the Cavs’ twos, too. Thought he’d be called on a little earlier when the team needed energy. |  | |||||||
 | Dwane Casey What’s there to say? You can’t really hang a 31-point loss on what the coach did and didn’t do around the margins. And he had the Raptors come out hot with a clear game plan on offense, they just couldn’t withstand it. They’re tired, they had a day to prepare, and so on. I probably would never ever sit Lowry and DeRozan together again and wouldn’t have played Johnson when James was off the floor (a waste of his biggest asset in this series), but really, how are you going to complain about coaching minutiae in a beatdown like this? Now, the pressure’s on him to scramble for some sort of adjustment. | | |||||||
Five Things We Saw
- At one point, the Cavaliers were 14/14 in the restricted area. They scored the first 25 transition points of the game. LeBron James is now 39-0 in playoff games his team has led by 20 in. It’s the largest playoff win in Cavs history. There is no end to the weird, random stats you can throw at this one. It was ether. That shit that make your soul burn slow.
- Things to look for more of next game: The Raptors had their most luck when Tristan Thompson was on the floor (that’s not saying a lot), and their early-first quarter offense did a nice job putting Kevin Love in tough defensive positions. They, uhh…I don’t know, they’ll be better in Game 2.
- Bismack Biyombo needs to be careful. I like the nothing-easy attitude and trying to step up with energy and toughness, but he got hit with a Flagrant-2 in the first round and had a couple of near-flagrants in this one. If a player gets four flagrant points in the playoffs, they’re hit with a one-game suspension. The Raptors can ill-afford that.
- Related, Doris Burke provided the update on the broadcast that Jonas Valanciunas is “extremely doubtful” for Game 2, and that the team is looking more toward next week (Game 4 goes Monday). That’s…not great.
- From a personal/selfish standpoint, these games suck for analysis. There are plays to draw up and rotation tweaks to suggest, but when it’s a thorough ass-kicking like this, none of those things at the margin are all that important. We didn’t get a large sample with actual units that could play together, and those that did play a lot were equally bad. Life is hard for me, is what I’m saying, and I’m deserving of all of your pity.
- On just one more note – if you get really upset about a player’s grade after a 30-point loss, don’t. Everyone kind of deserves an F, but that’s lazy, and so we do our best. I actually really dislike doing these, because I like to go back and rewatch a second time and go through my game notes as I do to make sure I caught things right in real-time, but these are popular, and so we do our best. I promise, if I graded your favorite or least favorite by a partial letter grade off, it was not personal.
