Game 1 Post-Game Podcast: The Cavs are who we thought they were | Raptors Republic
The Cavaliers Rougned Odor’d the Raptors in Game 1, which has left us pondering about ways back into this series.
Raptors pick the wrong poison, and other post-game notes | Raptors Republic
The defensive choices facing the Raptors are difficult in this series. Guard James one-on-one, and he’ll eat. Send help, and he’ll kick. Protect the rim, and they’ll shoot. Stay tight to shooters, and they’ll drive. But you have to do something right, and the Raptors committed to preventing threes and trying to choke ball movement. At least in the first half, they limited 3-pointers, which appeared to be the biggest threat entering this season, but James hit seven straight buckets in the paint and the Cavs scored 14 baskets in a row in the restricted area. In the end, the Raptors surrendered 56 points in the paint to just 21 points on threes.
That might be the right strategy and it might not be. What’s clear, though, is that the Raptors were uncomfortable with it. Their new defensive identity for the year was to send help on drives and zone up the weak side, then close out on shooters, and Tuesday saw them play every drive straight-up, even when struggling to contain on the perimeter, in order to stay closer to home on shooters.
James, by the way, went 8-of-9 on contested shots, so even though the Raptors (particularly DeMarre Carroll) didn’t do a great job, at least they made him hit tough ones. I don’t know, I’m stretching here.
As far as lineups that worked and didn’t, I did my usual dive through the data waiting on media availability, and it wasn’t pretty – not a single two-man combination that played at least three minutes was a positive together. As always, plus-minus is just descriptive and not a be-all/end-all, but at least the Raptors’ starters (minus-2 in 12 minutes) and the starters with James Johnson in place of Carroll (even in eight minutes) were competitive. That’s…something to build on.
Kyle Lowry leads the Raptors where they’ve never been before | Raptors Republic
There’s really no describing what happened in the fourth quarter. Lowry grabbed an offensive rebound and hit from 16 feet to start things off, and after Josh McRoberts finished his Bill Walton impression for the night, the defense locked in. Over the span of 3:26, the Raptors allowed the Heat one McRoberts layup and nothing else. Meanwhile, Biyombo threw one home. Carroll continued his terrific night with a big three (and later, more great defense on Wade). T.J. Ross hit a three. Cory Joseph got to the line. Frustration setting in, Biyombo was on the bad end of a flagrant foul from McRoberts. Naturally, once Biyombo missed the free throw, a bad scramble resulted in Lowry stealing a Dragic pass and sending Patterson to the line.
By the time Patterson hit his pair, the lead had ballooned to 20. It was a 14-2 run, and the Heat were on the ropes. For the next 7:30, the Air Canada Centre didn’t stop shaking, the only slight drawback to the proceedings being that there was no one climactic moment on which the ACC could explode – it was just moment after moment, bucket after bucket, new memory after new memory, building to a beautiful crescendo.
“I was just so happy that we could bust open that lead, and kind of give us the cushion so we could breathe, and just let the tension ease a little bit,” Joseph said. “It was a huge game for the whole of Canada.”
That crescendo came out of a Raptors timeout with 5:35 to play. The Heat had chipped it back to 16, and Casey wasn’t going to leave anything to chance or momentum. The timeout keyed another 9-0 run, concluding, of course, with a Lowry three and a scrambling Heat timeout, Spoelstra’s last gasp at an improbable comeback. It was for naught.
“They wore us down,” Erik Spoelstra conceded. “Toronto beat us. Fair and square. Give them credit.”
NBA Draft Lottery: Raptors will select 9th, 27th | Raptors Republic
To paint with broad strokes, I’m very much in the Best Player Available Camp, with some limits. I just think rosters are too fluid and rookies contribute to little in year one (in most cases) to plan out a roster or use a draft asset based on how things look this second. Delon Wright looked like he filled a need at the time, and not everyone is going to be able to play on a 50-plus-win team as a freshman like Norman Powell. I think if the Raptors keep a pick, they’ll lean more toward the Wright/Powell ready-sooner type, given where they are as an organization right now, and a draft-and-stash wouldn’t surprise me in the least, considering the roster stands to have a few young players on it again next season.
No matter how it shakes out, this extra pick is so much bonus fun for this coming offseason. Thanks, Bargs!
#WeTheOther: Happy to be here? No, we’re thrilled. | The Defeated
And maybe you want to attach a caveat to those benchmarks. That’s totally fine. The Raptors needed 14 games to get past the Pacers and Heat. Their offense has looked like shit. They don’t play an attractive style of basketball. Their stars, up until the last three games, have underperformed.
That’s all fair. You won’t find a single Raptors fan who disputes any of that. This team warrants a ton of criticism. And with how they’ve performed, there’s no reason to believe that they’ll even steal a single game from the undefeated Cavaliers.
All I ask for is a little respect. Because these Raptors have earned it. Not respect in the way that they’re title contenders or anything — we’re definitely the “Other” to the three title contenders left standing—but how about a little respect for the Raptors being that “Other” when all the others failed?
Because if we’re being completely honest, no national media member had the Raptors going this far in the first place. So for them to turn around and sneer, for them to shit on how they don’t deserve to be here — it just reminds me of how the Raptors have proven everybody wrong.
Game 1 rout outlines cold, harsh reality Raptors face: Arthur | Toronto Star
And almost insultingly easy game, though. The Cavaliers were a three-point shooting machine in the first two rounds as they swept Atlanta and Detroit, but with Toronto trying to take that away they were getting to the rim at will, making their bench hold one another back like they were the front row at the dunk contest. The Cavaliers spotted the Raptors seven points, and closed the first half on a 66-37 run. The Raptors are on the biggest stage in franchise history, and these players are on one of the biggest stages of their lives, and the Cavs were dancing and prancing and laughing away.
“They were scoring at will,” said forward DeMarre Carroll. “They looked like a team that was off for nine days, and we looked like a team that played a day ago. We got to find some inner strength.”
Again, the problem isn’t losing, but the solutions didn’t appear obvious. The Cavaliers had played eight games in a month, and while they won them all, five were within five points in the fourth quarter. But suddenly they were playing small, whipping the ball around like it was a video game and making three-pointers at what looked like unsustainable levels. Maybe they would be rusty. Maybe if you put pressure on them their new identity would crumble, at least some.
The Raptors couldn’t apply pressure. Remember Game 6 against Miami, after which Casey challenged the team to man up and defend someone? Well, they’re back.
“We’ve just got to defend better one-on-one,” said forward Patrick Patterson.
“We’re just trusting the pass more,” said Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue. “More ball movement, more pace. We understand who we are as a team, offensively and defensively, we understand who we are.”
An existential statement, but true. Before the game Toronto got the No. 9 pick in the draft — from the Andrea Bargnani deal! — and then spent the first half of the second quarter being made to look like a lottery team. Kyrie Irving blew by Lowry, who killed him in the regular season. LeBron blew by Carroll for a hammer highlight dunk, plus a foul, plus a giddy Cavaliers bench dance. Iman Shumpert blew by Carroll for a dunk, and it could have been a foul, too.
Rusty, rested or whatever, Raptors simply not in Cavaliers’ weight class | Sportsnet.ca
Before we get to the final score, well, okay – Cleveland won 115-84 and it was bad as it looks – remember the first two minutes? Yes, let’s remember.
The Raptors’ Patrick Patterson made a three to start; DeMarre Carroll made a steal and Kyle Lowry scored in transition; another steal by Carroll leading to a put-back by Bismack Biyombo.
Hey, the Raptors were up 7-0. The dream was alive.
For a moment you felt like you could talk your self into this being a series, even if everyone, it seemed, was picking the Cavaliers not only to win the series, but win it with ease. At ESPN.com their 18 NBA staffers were polled, all 18 picked the Cavs, with 15 of them picking the series to go five games or less. The Raptors were 12-1 underdogs according to Las Vegas odds makers even though they lost one more regular season game.
“I see it all,” Raptors all-star DeMar DeRozan said before the game. “It’s never going to stop with us, no matter what we do, no matter how far we go. We just have to get all the way to the mountaintop and maybe even then they’ll come up with an excuse for us.
“I’ve been dealing with it for seven years. The best part I get out of it is being able to say we’re standing here still playing.”
But then, LeBron, who had no interest in any rust-vs-rest debate, or anything other running the Cavaliers post-season wining streak to 9-0 with no end in sight, happened.
“We didn’t rest,” said the Cavaliers star after the game, describing Cleveland’s intense conditioning program they used to stay sharp. “We just didn’t have a game in front of cameras. Our mindset was: Whenever our game presented itself we were going to be able to play our game and we accomplished that tonight.”
Having the odds against them could benefit the Raptors, says Scola | Toronto Sun
“On one hand, I do think it’s an advantage, no pressure, we just get to play and I think pressure a little bit was a little bit of a problem the first two series (for the Raptors),” Scola told Postmedia in a 1-on-1 chat before shootaround on Tuesday.
“On the other hand, there’s a reason why people scratch us off, not because we’re a bad team — we’re not anywhere near a bad team — but Cleveland is playing very well.
“When you play very, very well, you get credit and people expect very high things from you.”
Cleveland delivered on those expectations in Game 1, putting on an offensive clinic, continuing a playoff-long trend.
“That’s OK, we didn’t play really, really well in the playoffs,” Scola continued.
“We played OK and we won, but we didn’t really play the same level we did in the regular season. Cleveland, on the other hand, played even better than they did in the regular season, so, it’s just expected that people give them a little more credit.”
Scola says that because the Raptors — and stars Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan — struggled at times over the first 14 games of the playoffs, they are being overlooked.
“We’re trying to change that perception and there’s only one way to do that, it’s on the basketball court,” Scola said.
LeBron James, Cavaliers crush Raptors in Eastern Conference final opener | Toronto Star
The Cavs only made seven three-pointers after making 16 per game in the first eight post-season games but it didn’t matter given the ease with which they got to the rim.
“You want to take away one thing but you don’t want to open up a whole can of worms to give them layups . . . you take way the three but if you’re not careful, you’re giving up layups,” Casey said.
“The speed of the game is another issue, it was a quicker pace, quicker foot-speed for this team than Miami and Indiana and we have to get used to that.”
DeMar DeRozan had 12 points in the first quarter and only finished with 18 while Lowry had eight on a 4-for-14 shooting night.
The most telling statistic for the duo was that they did not attempt a single free throw between them.
“I thought DeRozan came out and had a great first quarter,” Lue said. “He made some shots, some in-between twos. We wanted to get a late contest on that, we were going to live with those shots. But we did a great job of keeping him and Kyle off the free-throw line like we talked about, and the guys followed the game plan perfectly.”
Cavaliers dominate Raptors to draw first blood | Toronto Sun
The three-point shooting binge that has been the Cavs’ calling card all post-season wasn’t much of a factor at all as the Cavs only attempted 17 and made seven for a mediocre (for them) 41% success rate.
But when you are getting to the rim, often times untouched, you don’t need to kick it out and shoot threes.
Far more devastating was the Cavs inside game where they simply owned the paint outscoring the Raptors 56-36 inside. Midway through the third quarter they were still shooting 60%. That only came down moderately to 55.4% by games’ end.
The Raptors didn’t have a disastrous shooting night, primarily because DeMar DeRozan was red hot for most of the first quarter, but from outside the Raptors continue to struggle.
The team was just 5-for-24 from three, including a worrisome 0-for-7 from Kyle Lowry, who appeared to have found his rhythm from that distance over the final few games in the Miami series.
Lowry wasn’t much better from the field overall where he was just 4-for-14 in a tough night for a guy who has normally saved his best for the Cavaliers.
Lowry was held to just eight points, five assists and four rebounds for the night.
DeRozan meanwhile had it going early, but like the rest of the Raptors, appeared to get locked down in the second half.
He finished with 18 for the game, two more than he had going into the second half.
The turning point though came in the second quarter when the Cavs bench entered the game and got a 33-16 quarter started.
Toronto’s bench has been in disarray since Patrick Patterson was moved into the starting five. That may be an area that gets addressed in between games to get that second unit going again.
“We have to find that rhythm with that second unit and get some productivity from those guys,” Casey said of his bench.
Kyrie Irving toys with Raptors in Game 1 shellacking | Toronto Star
“I’m always on Kyrie about staying aggressive because guys can’t guard him one-on-one, especially in transition,” Cavs head coach Tyronn Lue said. “If we can get it out early to him he can attack.”
Irving was aggressive all night and was instrumental in helping the Cavs turn a 33-28 lead after the first quarter into a second quarter that saw the Raptors outscored 33-16. He got to the rim at will against Kyle Lowry and Cory Joseph, taking two normally excellent defenders out of their games.
“I thought he played at a high level,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said of Irving. “He was as fresh (on January 4, when Irving had 25 points and eight assists in a win over the Raptors) as he was tonight.
“There are things we have to do to keep pressure on him and keep him in front of us. He was playing at a different level, a different speed. Their whole team was.”
Cleveland spent the first two rounds firing away from three-point land, killing the Detroit Pistons and Atlanta Hawks from afar. Against the Raptors, the Cavs went to work in the paint and Irving led that charge.
“He’s at a different clip,” Casey said. “As he’s been for a while.”
Asked what makes Irving so unstoppable, Lue laughed.
“With his dribbling ability it’s hard to stay in front of him,” he said. “When he’s making his mid-range shot, it’s hard to guard him. I just want him to stay aggressive … attacking his man one-on-one and that’s what he did tonight. He’s been doing it through the whole playoffs.”
Was that the beginning of the end for Raptors? | Toronto Sun
The Raptors had a couple good minutes and a 7-0 lead. And that was it. The Cavs led by 22 at the half, by 28 at the end of three quarters, by 31 when the game ended 115-84. Over the final 46 minutes of the game, the Raptors were outscored 115-77.
The Canadian online indignation over a CBS poll — real or contrived — didn’t just seem meaningless at the end of Game 1, but what this game did was justify CBS’s labelling of the three teams with a chance to win the NBA title and the one without.
Coach Dwane Casey said coming in he liked the fact that no one was giving the Raptors any kind of chance. He couldn’t have felt that way after Game 1. The separation between team and talent, between Raptors and Cavaliers, was more apparent than any kind of pre-series analysis. You can talk about LeBron James. You can watch him, study him, game plan for him: And then a game like this happens, and before your eyes you can understand what makes him a Top 5 of all-time. How much he does. How unstoppable he becomes in a variety of ways.
“The score is embarrassing,” said Casey. “It’s just one game.
“This series is not over by any means.”
That’s what a coach has to say when his teams gets obliterated on opening night. What else could he say? He will watch film after the game and probably right into the morning and if he finds a way to stop James and to a lesser extend Kyrie Irving, then that will be the equivalent of a scientific discovery for the ages. The Cavaliers may not play any better than that in this series, may not have to play any better to beat the Raptors. The Raptors can and will play better, so maybe a 31-point defeat can become a 20-point defeat or a 15-point defeat but what thin evidence is there to believe this series can be contested?
Raptors-Cavaliers: Five players who made difference in Game 1 | Toronto Star
DeMar DeRozan
DeRozan opened up the game at his best, hitting his first five shots and scoring 12 points in the first quarter for the second game in a row. His first half was statistically impressive (16 points on 8-for-13 shooting) but his complete lack of free throws in the half were indicative of his team’s problems overall. The Raptors only got to the line once in the first half, with Bismack Biyombo hitting both his shots. With the game out of reach quickly in the third, DeRozan finished with 18 points.
Grade: B
Cavaliers’ J.R. Smith leaves behind ‘clown prince of basketball’ role | Toronto Star
“It wasn’t easy coming here thinking I wasn’t going to shoot the ball,” he stopped here and laughed for a second. “I looked at it as I really have to mature and grow up and be that (stopper).
“Sometimes it’s hard running up and down the court five minutes without touching the ball, but knowing that your impact is on the defensive end and our team keeps running . . . It’s huge for my confidence on the defensive end.”
Cavs coach Tyronn Lue agrees that Smith has matured since he first entered the league.
“The biggest thing for J.R., he’s become our best defensive player this year,” Lue said, including James with the statement.
James vouched for Smith when he and Iman Shumpert joined the team from New York last year.
“I understand that he was ready to make a change in not only his personal goals, but to help a team,” said James. “We’ve always preached defence — I’m a huge defensive guy — so it’s great to have someone that kind of wants to be a part of that and just took that responsibility.”
Which one of you jerks did this? pic.twitter.com/5Gya4WQppp
— Sam Holako (@rapsfan) May 18, 2016
ECF Game 1: Raptors 84, Cavaliers 115 | Toronto Raptors
BY THE #’S
55…Percent shooting for the Cavs, 42 precent for the Raptors.
24…Points, six rebounds, four assists, two steals and a blocked shot for LeBron James who shot 11-for-13 from the floor in 28 minutes.
20…Free throw attempts for the Raptors, who shot 15-for-20 from the line, compared to 33 attempts for Cleveland who converted 26 of 33 attempts.
45…Rebounds for Cleveland, just 23 for Toronto. The Cavs also held a 10-4 advantage on the offensive glass.
56…Points in the paint for the Cavs, 36 for Toronto.
Raptors sink into oblivion, lose Game 1 to the Cavaliers 115-84 | Raptors HQ
After a surprisingly sharp 7-0 start, and a 5-for-5 opening by DeMar DeRozan, the Raptors collapsed in a heap. To the team’s credit, they got the scouting report on these Cavaliers: they like to shoot 3-pointers. So, for most of the first quarter, the Raptors did what they could to chase Cleveland and its relentless band of shooters off the three point line. Unfortunately, this opened up the rim. By the time LeBron James missed his first shot, the Raptors had been put to sleep. James finished the game with 24 points (on 11-for-13 shooting), six rebounds and four assists. And honestly, he didn’t looked particularly stressed — even when Bismack Biyombo took a swing at him.
For the Raptors, it was the night of many not-so-happy returns. The bad version of Kyle Lowry showed up to shoot 4-for-14 and miss all seven of his threes for a total of eight points. Patrick Patterson and DeMarre Carroll mostly took turns looking like re-animated husks out there — with Carroll in particular getting just annihilated by James multiple times. Cory Joseph was largely a ghost again. DeRozan had an above average efficiency night (for him), shooting 9-for-17 from the field for 18 points, which feels like a cruel bit of irony. And the next two leading scorers for the Raps were Biyombo with 12 and — let me see here — James Johnson, the ultimate comeback kid, with ten.
At one point in the second quarter, the Raptors got the lead down to 12 and you could maybe see the formation of a little run happening. It was quickly snuffed out by the Cavaliers, who by this point were shooting around 66 percent from three (while the Raptors had missed 14 of their 16 attempts from deep). Then to start the second half, the Raptors went on another nifty little 6-0 run to get the lead to 14. Maybe a glimmer of hope emerged from deep in the dark Cleveland night in that moment. It too was obliterated by the solar eclipse that is LeBron and his horseman. There was only death.
The results are in. Raptors will select 9th at the upcoming NBA Draft. #WeTheNorth
A photo posted by Toronto Raptors (@raptors) on
HQ Overtime Post-Game Show: Let’s collect ourselves, shall we? | Raptors HQ
Well, there definitely wasn’t any rust on the Cavaliers. The Raptors got their clocks cleaned in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, losing 115-84. I’m joined by Russell Peddle to talk about their efficiency, possible adjustments for the Raptors, and the sheer moment of being in this round.
Most importantly, Irving’s scoring punch at the end of the first quarter allowed LeBron James to be fresh for the start of the second, something that wasn’t the case for the Raptors, who were burned by their substitution pattern.
With James sitting for the final 2:27 of the first period, the Cavs outscored the Raptors, 8-4, extending the lead to five points.
That’s when the Cavs started to bury the East’s overmatched two seed.
Refreshed and rejuvenated, the James-led group opened the quarter on a 9-0 spurt, as Raptors head coach Dwane Casey was forced to put Lowry and DeMar DeRozan back into the game on short rest. Casey tried getting the duo a brief blow after playing all but two seconds of the first period, but the Cavs’ five-man lineup, featuring James alongside four bench players, wouldn’t allow it.
Lowry and DeRozan looked gassed and overwhelmed and the Raptors’ offense stopped. By the time Irving returned midway through the second quarter, the Cavs were up by 18. The three-time NBA All-Star picked up where he left off, scoring six points to finish the quarter and leading the Cavs to a massive 22-point halftime lead.
Here’s to stealing game 1 from a team who underestimated us #wethenorth
A photo posted by Raptors Republic (@raptorsrepublic) on
The Raptors, to their credit, took the Cavs shot on the chin and climbed their way back into the game climbing within 12 points of the lead. Sadly for Drake thats the closest the Raptors would get to the lead all game. Cavaliers Coach Ty Lue inserted the starting lineup back into the game helping Cleveland to pull away and head into the locker room at halftime with a 22 point lead.
Things did not change much during the third quarter. The Cavaliers continued to execute on both ends of the court, extending their lead to 28 by the end of the quarter. The game got so out of hand that even Kyrie was dunking.
By the middle of the fourth quarter Timo Mozgov, Mo Williams and James Jones were on the court and the Cavs had game one locked up.
The Cavaliers will next face the third most northern team in North America again on Thursday, when they host the Raptors for game two. Hopefully the referees will set a more firm tone early because if game one is any indication about the only thing the Cavs have to fear from Toronto is Bismack Biyombo’s elbows.
Cleveland Cavaliers dominate paint, throttle Toronto Raptors in Game 1, 115-84 | cleveland.com
The Cleveland Cavaliers have proved during this postseason that they can really shoot the ball from the outside. Now they’ve proved they can really score from inside.
On Tuesday evening in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, the Cavaliers embarrassed the Toronto Raptors and their scheme by way of a 115-84 throttling.
Cleveland (1-0) took what the defense gave them and attacked the rim in scoring a whopping 56 points in the paint. Toronto (0-1) didn’t want to be on the receiving end of a three-point whipping, so they chose to give up dunks and layups.
Kyrie Irving played so aggressively, but yet under control. He registered 18 of his game-high 27 points on 11-of-17 from the floor to go with five assists. LeBron James put in 24 points, six rebounds and four assists. All of his 11 field goals were from right under the basket. He feasted.
DeMar DeRozan scored 18 points, but took 17 shots to get it. Kyle Lowry struggled, going for only eight points on 4-of-14 shooting along with four turnovers. If those two aren’t hitting, the Raptors don’t stand a chance.
Cleveland outrebounded Toronto, 45-23, and shot 55 percent from the field. Cleveland was only 7-of-20 from three-point range, but it didn’t matter. The Cavaliers have other methods of winning games. The Raptors officially have a problem.
John Tory throwing down #wethenorth #wetheother
A photo posted by Raptors Republic (@raptorsrepublic) on
Casey elected to guard the Cavs straight up, with no help defense and no double teams in an effort to run the Cavs off the 3-point line. When Kevin Love stood in the corner, Patrick Patterson never left him. Love told me after the game he was content to just stand in the corner then as sort of a decoy, drawing a defender out of the lane. Love had 14 points and four rebounds, his first game this postseason without a double-double. And yet the Cavs still outrebounded the Raptors 45-23.
Cavs present a long list of predicaments for the Raptors — Bud Shaw’s Sports Spin | cleveland.com
The Cavs played the kind of defense that gave them an identity in last year’s playoffs. A survival instinct then, it’s only slightly less necessary now if they hope to win a championship.
After the Raptors overplayed the three early, Frye and Dellavedova hit two from behind the arc in a 12-0 run early in the second quarter. Then Frye found Delly cutting to the basket for a layup and foul. Now the run was 15-0.
During that stretch Toronto missed 10 straight shots. They weren’t exactly open looks.
James brought the cymbals to the show with a baseline drive and jam, backpedaling and letting out a scream that could’ve been heard in the rafters. Next up, a Shumpert dunk and it was 49-30.
The Cavs showed in this game they’re not a three-point team by design. They’ll take it if you give it. If you don’t they’ll take it to the basket.
Get ready Cleveland. Our travelling support is en route. #WeTheNorth
A photo posted by Toronto Raptors (@raptors) on
LeBron James destroyed DeMarre Carroll in Game 1: Joe Vardon’s instant analysis | cleveland.com
James destroyed Carroll and the Cavaliers routed the Toronto Raptors 115-84 in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals. James made his first nine shots, most with Carroll trying to guard him, and finished with 24 points, six rebounds, and four assists on 11-of-13 shooting.
It was James’ 19th consecutive playoff game with at least 20 points. The only thing that kept him from 30 was the scoreboard – Cleveland was too far ahead for him to play in the fourth quarter.
Which, given everything, was just the same for Carroll. He’d seen enough of James.
It wasn’t just that the ball was going from James’ hand through the hoop. It’s that James was consistently, at will, without resistance going past his man to the rim for baseline dunks or layups, which accounted for all of his field goals. James’ windmill slam on Carroll at 7:40 of the second quarter was particularly brutal.
Raptors starstruck in series opener with Cavs | TSN
After the Raptors raised some eyebrows with a quick 7-0 start, the East’s top seed put an end to those questions. They hit 67 per cent of their first-half shots, led by LeBron James, of course, who didn’t miss his first attempt until five minutes into the third quarter.
Casey was wary of deviating too much from a defensive philosophy that had worked for his team throughout the playoffs and during the regular season. The Raptors tend to prioritize defending the bucket, often at the expense of the three-point line, so naturally, Cleveland presents a unique challenge.
The Cavs were just 7-for-20 from long distance, but it’s hard to give Casey’s club much credit for that – most of the time LeBron and company decided it best to take the easier, uncontested rout to the rim. Defensively, the Raptors appeared starstruck. James treated DeMarre Carroll as a pylon. One one occasion, in the second quarter, he blew by him on the baseline, finishing with the vicious one-handed slam that would ignite his team’s bench and become the game’s signature play. Kyrie Irving, who scored a game-high 27 points, got to the rim at will, while his counterpart Kyle Lowry was held to eight points and missed all seven of his threes.
“[It’s] very demoralizing,” Casey said. “You want to take away one thing, but you don’t want to open up a whole can of worms and give them layups and that’s where we’ve got to be disciplined and understand where the help is coming from, the angles of your closeouts. You take away the three, but if you’re not careful, you’re giving up layups and that’s where we have to find a balance.”
In four seasons together, this was the first time Lowry and DeMar DeRozan each failed to attempt a free throw in the same game.
Toronto Raptors embarrassed in game 1 vs Cavaliers | Raptors Cage
Rebounding: F
Holy cow. I didn’t realize the discrepancy on the glass until I looked at the box score. The Raps lost the boards battle 45-23 tonight. You read that right. Granted, the Cavs shot 55% and the Raptors shot 42%, making the Raps have less misses to work with, but still.
All the extra possessions the Cavs got certainly killed the Raptors. It’s not as if they are undersized. Bismack and Patrick Patterson combined for 6 boards. That is unacceptable.
At this rate, Raptors won’t be silencing the doubters any time soon | CBSSports.com
OK, so here are the positives from Toronto’s 115-84 blowout loss in Cleveland: The Raptors scored the first seven points of the game. DeRozan made his first five shots. The Cavs only made seven 3-pointers this time. Just about everything else was a disaster. If this was rest vs. rust, rest dominated.
Toronto had a 28-27 lead after a James Johnson layup with 1:17 left in the first quarter, and then the Cavs went on a 22-2 run. The Raptors started the second quarter with both DeRozan and Kyle Lowry on the bench, and they immediately turned the ball over twice. From there, everything unraveled.
Cleveland made 55.4 percent of its shots and outscored Toronto 56-36 in the paint. The Raptors were so focused on taking away 3-point shots that the Cavs were able to simply blow by them and get into the paint. Casey said it was “very demoralizing” to be beaten off the dribble so many times.
“You want to take away one thing, but you don’t want to open up a whole can of worms to give ’em layups,” Casey said. “And that’s what we gotta be disciplined with.”
Toronto Raptors overrun by Cleveland Cavaliers after hot start | ESPN
James and Irving sat out the fourth quarter after combining to score 51 points on 22-for-30 shooting over the first three, doing much of their damage from the painted area off straight-line drives.
“Those are very, very demoralizing,” Casey said. “Again, you want to take away one thing [the 3-point shooting], but you don’t want to open up a whole can of worms to give them layups, and that’s what we’ve got to be disciplined with and understand where the help is coming from, the angles of your close-outs, the angles of your foot position, your stance on the basketball.
“Again, like I said, you take away the 3, but if you’re not careful, you’re giving up layups, and that’s where we got to get that balance, and I think that’s the key for this whole series. It’s a different series than last series. We’ve got to get our minds adjusted and bodies adjusted. The speed of the game is another issue, a quicker pace, a quicker foot speed for this team versus Miami and Indiana, so we’ve got to make that adjustment.”
Meanwhile, Toronto went 5-for-24 from 3-point range.
Maybe the Raptors could get away with that earlier in these playoffs.
Not now.
Not with Jonas Valanciunas out with a right ankle sprain and his status for the rest of the series uncertain beyond being doubtful to play in Game 2 on Thursday night.
Kyle Lowry, coming off back-to-back games in which he scored 36 and 35 points, had only eight points Tuesday night on 4-for-14 shooting, including 0-for-7 from beyond the arc. He and DeMar DeRozan (18 points), who hit his first five shots and had 12 points in the first quarter, both did not get to the free throw line for the first time in 269 career games together (including playoffs), according to ESPN Stats & Information.
“Just being more aggressive,” DeRozan said. “We’ve got to come out of the gate with that mindset, being aggressive like we usually do, and I think we didn’t try to do that until later in the game.”
Is the Cleveland Cavaliers-Toronto Raptors Series Already Over? | Bleacher Report
Cleveland Can Get Better
With the 31-point margin of victory, the Cavs set a new franchise record, besting their previous high of 30 set all the way back in Game 2 against the Hawks less than two weeks ago.
The scary part for Toronto? Cleveland appeared to be nowhere near its peak in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
The Cavs didn’t even particularly need the three-ball, making just seven of their 20 attempts. Love had a relatively quiet night with 14 points and four rebounds. As long as Valanciunas is out, he should find paint touches and baskets more prevalent as the series progresses.
J.R. Smith made just one shot in his 27-plus minutes, and Tristan Thompson managed a mere six points and seven rebounds—a very modest night on the glass for him.
Defensively, the Cavs also proved they can handle Lowry, who torched them in the regular season. Toronto’s All-Star point guard managed just eight points on 4-of-14 shooting, including 0-of-7 from deep.
For the Raptors, a 31-point loss, combined with Cleveland’s room for improvement, should be incredibly discouraging. The Cavaliers are steamrolling through the East, with Toronto looking like just another bump in the road.
“We have a goal, and our goal is not nine wins,” James said. “It’s just not. It’s not my focus. I’ve won nine games in the postseason before. I’ve won 14 games in the postseason before. It’s not my goal, and as the leader of this team, I need to continue to make sure these guys know what our goal is.”
Although just one game has passed, the Eastern Conference Finals may already be over.
Kelly: Average isn’t close to good enough if the Raptors want to beat the Cavs | The Globe and Mail
All in all, it was not an imperious debut for Toronto’s supporters on the NBA’s main stage. Following the same malfunctioning motivational GPS, the team trailed its fans into Lake Erie.
Toronto was comprehensively defeated in its first game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, 115-84. If that doesn’t sound close, it’s because it wasn’t.
After the Raptors delightful surprise in these playoffs (i.e. winning for a change), one comes to Cleveland expecting a similar feel. You forget that this town has felt on the edge of something huge, on-and-off, for a decade.
Cavaliers Show No Signs of Slowing in Rout of Raptors | The New York Times
Kyrie Irving scored 27 points, and James added 24. The Cavaliers shot 55.4 percent from the field to turn the whole evening into a glorified pickup game at the local Y.M.C.A., though one with thousands of screaming fans, a national television audience and a scoreboard known simply as Humongotron, which spewed fire and flashed an increasingly lopsided score.
“We were getting to our sweet spots as much as possible,” Irving said. “We played at an unbelievable pace.”
The Cavaliers, who will host Game 2 on Thursday, led by 22 at halftime and by 28 at the end of the third quarter. DeMar DeRozan scored 18 points for the Raptors, who looked as if they had spent three months at sea before the game was 15 minutes old.
The Cavaliers and the Raptors took opposite paths to the conference finals. The Cavaliers swept their first two opponents and had a nine-day layoff after breezing past the Atlanta Hawks in the conference semifinals. The Raptors, on the other hand, went the full seven games in each of the first two rounds. Lots of minutes. Lots of travel. Lots of stress.
“They’ve been off their feet,” DeRozan said of the Cavaliers. “We’ve been battling the last couple of weeks.”
Even after one game, Cavs appear too strong for Raptors | USA Today
None of this is a knock on the Raptors. This is more about what Cleveland is doing, especially on offense, and Tuesday’s victory was destruction of another kind.
In Cleveland’s first two series against Detroit and Atlanta, it won with a barrage of three-pointers, including an NBA-record 25 threes against the Hawks in Game 2.
Toronto made a decision in Game 1 to try and prevent the Cavs from knocking down three after three after three.
So Cleveland, which made just seven threes in Game 1, just went inside and did its damage at the rim, outscoring Toronto 56-36 on points in the paint. The Cavs made 28-of-38 (73.1%) shots in the paint, which is 17.2 percentage points better than the league average, according to stats.nba.com.
“You take away the three, but if you’re not careful, you’re giving up layups, and that’s where we got to get that balance, and I think that’s the key for this whole series,” Casey said.
Dribbles: Cavs will need to take it up a notch | Amico Hoops
I suspect the Raptors to be physical and ornery all series. Toronto is close, so their fans will be in Cleveland, and acting proud and loud. Canada’s first love is hockey, but the Raptors truly have one the league’s best and most boisterous fan bases.
Cavaliers: The Big Man Gameplan Against Toronto | King James Gospel
Honestly, the absence of Jonas Valanciunas is crucial for the Cavaliers. The Cavs really had no answer for the Lithuanian on the inside during the regular season, besides playing Timofey Mozgov or fronting Valanciunas in the post with Thompson, but now don’t have to worry about him.
If he does play, I expect to see Frye and Love on the floor a lot. They both will keep him out of the paint with their shooting range and Love will bruise him up contesting for rebounds. Biyombo can’t score in the post but is a difference maker for the Toronto Raptors. He’s undersized in height, but a huge shot blocking presence because of his elite instincts and athleticism and that reminds me of Ben Wallace. His screening also frees up other Raptors for a lot of points. For the Cavs, Biyombo will be taken away from the basket when Channing Frye or Kevin Love play center.
Tristan Thompson has the best physical and athletic profile against his matchups because he’ll have only the offensively one-dimensional one-way player Patrick Patterson, or Luis Scola who won’t keep up athletically.
The latter two also would be outplayed by Love in the post as well, so no matter the frontcourt combination for the Cavaliers, they won’t be much of a factor.
At center, Thompson and Biyombo mirror each other physically. I expect to see a lot of alley-oops and dunks off of cuts to the basket for Thompson and from a lot of connections from Matthew Dellavedova, who will play heavy minutes against the backcourt the Raptors keep ready on their bench, particularly former San Antonio Spur Cory Joseph and rookie Norman Powell. The Cavaliers will have a huge advantage on the boards and second chance points not just because of Thompson but because of the matchup problem presented by the Cavaliers frontcourt trio as a whole. The bigs will come up big in this matchup.
Are You Ready To Believe In Raptors Head Coach Dwane Casey Now? | Pro Bball Report
“I’m not a sentimental person,” Casey said. “For this program, from where we were to where we are, it’s important. We did what we set out to do. Again, we’re not done yet. I know what it’s like to win a championship and I’m not saying we can do that, but I think this group is hungry and never, say never. I know one thing our guys will compete and that’s all you can ask at this time, play hard, lay it all on the line for 48 minutes, no matter who is out there.
“Personally, it’s rewarding to see for our coaching staff, but we still have a series to go in the Eastern Conference.”
Also kudos have to go with current Raptors basketball head Masai Ujiri who could have let Casey go when he came on board. It’s the right of any new boss in sports to come in and bring in their own people. He didn’t and that’s a credit to Ujiri who saw that he already had his man to run the bench.
But like Casey said it’s not over yet, the next chapter is the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The pundits have this being another Cavaliers four game sweep and yes with this Raptors team being battered and bruised and missing their big man in middle Jonas Valanciunas, it’s going to be a lot tougher to go up against LeBron James.
The Cavaliers are on mission, they have unfinished business against the Golden State Warriors.
However, coach Casey will have his team ready to play with their usual defense first game plan and I wouldn’t bet on a four game Cleveland sweep.
Not with Dwane Casey running the show.
GM Masai Ujiri puts Toronto Raptors in position to enjoy Tuesday | ESPN
Ujiri inherited a roster from Colangelo that featured Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan, Jonas Valanciunas and Terrence Ross along with coach Dwane Casey. He then proceeded to nearly blow it up after the team got off to a bad start in the 2013-14 season.
Rudy Gay was sent to the Sacramento Kings and Lowry was nearly sent to the New York Knicks. But New York owner James Dolan, whose club already had been fleeced by Toronto in the Bargnani deal, didn’t want to part with a first-round pick, so the trade that Lowry thought was nearing completion never reached the finish line.
Gay turned into current starter Patrick Patterson and key bench player Greivis Vasquez, Lowry and DeRozan grew into elite players and put the franchise on their backs, and the Raptors wound up finishing with 48 wins and a heartbreaking playoff exit following a thrilling, seven-game series with the veteran Brooklyn Nets.
The tone had been set.
This past summer, following a four-game sweep at the hands of the Washington Wizards, Ujiri responded by moving on from Sixth Man winner Lou Williams and turning Vasquez into second-round pick turned starter Norman Powell and a 2017 first-round pick. He struck quickly in free agency to sign 3-and-D ace DeMarre Carroll for $60 million before also landing Toronto native Cory Joseph for $30 million, interior heart and soul Bismack Biyombo for $6 million and veteran sage Luis Scola for $3 million — adding several physical, two-way players to a roster in desperate need of them.
GM who’s twice ripped off Knicks explains Bargnani trade | New York Post
And Toronto’s ninth spot is where Knicks president Phil Jackson would have selected had the club not traded its 2016 first-rounder to Toronto under former GM Glen Grunwald.
“It’s difficult talking about that — it’s in the past,’’ Ujiri said of the Bargnani deal. “You just try to make the team better. That was the mindset at the time. Two years later, we get the pick. I’m happy we have a pick, but you got to pick a player. That’s the tough part. Hopefully we do our best.’’
Ujiri has swindled the Knicks not once, but twice, earning the respect of Knicks owner James Dolan. As Nuggets GM, Ujiri masterminded the deal that sent Carmelo Anthony to the Knicks in 2011 — a trade that coincidentally hurt his Raptors on Tuesday. The last remnant of the Anthony deal had the Knicks swapping 2016 first-round picks with Denver. Hence, the Nuggets actually got the Knicks’ selection at No. 7.
“It’s weird being in this position,’’ Ujiri said. “Because I was blessed to be part of both [trades].’’
Ujiri, one of the NBA’s top executives, was in no mood to gloat or give advice to Jackson, the embattled Knicks president. “He’s got 11 [championships]. He’s got 11 of them, man,’’ Ujiri said. “I got zero.”
Post-lottery NBA mock draft: With the 9th pick, the Raptors select… | Sportsnet.ca
One of the biggest winners coming out of the combine last week, Chriss would address a glaring area of need for a team that started Luis Scola at power forward for the majority of the season. Chriss may not be an immediate answer and could even see time with the 905 in the D-League, but he has star potential as a starter and is a relatively low-risk pick. At 6’10. 230-lbs, the 18 year-old (he’ll be 19 by the time the season starts) is an elite athlete with good size for the position and range that extends to the three-point line.
There will be plenty of frontcourt options here—get ready hear names like Labissiere, Deyonta Davis, Henry Ellison, and Jakob Poetl often— and while some are more NBA-ready, none quite match the ceiling or, more importantly, fit of Chriss.
Did I miss something? Send me any Raptors-related article to rapsfan@raptorsrepublic.com
