The Toronto Raptors won Game 4 against the Cleveland Cavaliers. That much is true and can never be taken away from them. Whatever variance happened within – torrid shooting from Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, frigid shooting from Kevin Love and J.R. Smith, any fortuitous bounce or call here and there – can’t be changed now. For the “don’t complain in a win” crowd, the tiny samples of a playoff series that’s now essentially down to three games is the necessary justification to live in the present.
At the same time, they very nearly didn’t win that game. They blew what was once an 18-point lead, and they’ll need to do a better job at the defensive end if they’re going to come back home with a chance to close out early. This isn’t to disparage an excellent effort and a really fun game, but it’s kind of hard not to write about a stretch that saw the Cavs come away with points on 14 consecutive possessions and hit on 11 field-goal attempts in a row.
Those aren’t exaggerations. With 51 seconds to play in the third quarter, the Raptors led by 11. Kyrie Irving hit a mid-range shot, and from then until Kyle Lowry spectacularly blew up a play with 4:11 to go in the fourth, the Cavs didn’t come away empty-handed. They scored 31 points on 14 possessions, a rate of 221.4 PPC, compared to 90.7 PPC for the rest of the game. What’s more, they did it primarily running the same action, one the Raptors kept trying to adjust to only to run into counter after counter. The Raptors eventually slowed it enough for Cleveland to go away from it (or the Cavs just had mercy), and I’d bet anything that the bulk of the film work Tuesday centered on these sets.
Let’s have a look at the entire set. We’re going to speed through, just because it will get really repetitive otherwise. And then we’ll hit on Lowry’s awesome single-handed snuff-out to end the run. (I won’t break it down due to time constraints, but I’ll point out that the Raptors’ defense over the final four minutes was borderline terrific.)
The prelude
Lineup: Irving-Smith-James-Love-Thompson
Time: 0:51
Start Score: 76-65
End Score:78-69 (-2)
The Cavs haven’t gone to their core group yet but they build a bit of momentum late in the frame (did you know the Raptors struggle to end quarters?) thanks to a pair of Irving jumpers. There’s nothing wrong with the first, as Irving simply hits an off-dribble 17-footer in isolation after the Raptors snuff out the initial action.
Coming back down, the Raptors get set quickly enough to prevent a two-for-one, and so it’s once again on Irving to hit a very tough shot.
Notice how stagnant the offense is around Irving on these two possessions? That’s been an issue for Cleveland at times in this series, and the Raptors seemed more willing in Game 4 to let him go one-on-one without much help (away from the rim) in order to keep the others out of the flow.
The Benchnik Termites
Lineup: Dellavedova-Shumpert-Jefferson-James-Frye
Time: 5:21
Start Score: 78-69
End Score: 89-88 (-8)
This is the Cavs’ lineup that’s really hurt the Raptors during this series. It may look odd on paper, but the blend of secondary ball-handling, shooting, offense, and defense, plus the chance to use James as a de facto point guard despite him playing the four, can be deadly. In the series so far, they’ve played 23 minutes together, outscoring the Raptors by 25 (by far Cleveland’s best lineup). They’re shooting 67.6 percent overall, 9-of-14 on threes, and they’ve assists on 17 of 25 field goals. We’re about to see why.
On the second play. The first play is a bit of a “what can you do,” as the Raptors defend well in semi-transition, force a James pass, snuff out a Jefferson attack, close out on a shooter…and then Patterson gets beat by Jefferson for a layup that Jefferson has no business hitting.
The next play first shows the issue of Frye. The Cavs run off a miss and push to Dellavedova in the corner while Frye trails the play. Johnson comes down some because he’s the rim protector in this lineup, and Patterson is preoccupied with a cutting James and unable to help when the pass comes up to Frye.
I’m not sure if you’ve been paying close attention, but Frye is pretty deadly at the top left alone.
The Raptors finally get to defend off of a dead ball, and the Cavs go to the primary play from this set (#1). This is how they’ll initiate a lot of the next few plays.
Dellavedova feeds James in the high post on the right side in a HORNs formation. From there, he’ll set a down-screen for Jefferson, then come back up for a hand-off from James. The Dellavedova-Jefferson action doesn’t do a ton here, but the Dellavedova-James hand-off forces the Raptors into a tough spot. Johnson drops back and Lowry goes over the James screen.
James delays his roll as the Raptors load up on Dellavedova. They’re fine on the strong side, but the way they’re set up, there’s nobody to bump James on the dive or protect the rim…unless Patterson comes off of Frye.
Patterson begins to show that way, so Dellavedova instead makes a great pass right to Frye, cutting out he middle man.
Already, the lead’s down to one, and Casey calls a timeout. DeRozan returns for Ross, but the real point here is to get Biyombo back in for Johnson (not that Johnson hasn’t done a good job on James, but Biyombo’s their best defensive big). Somewhat curiously, though, Biyombo guards Frye. He can do that, but Biyombo’s biggest value is at the rim and on the glass, and asking him to chase Frye takes him out of those roles and shifts them to Patterson, who’s less adept. Whether it’s hiding on Shumpert in a help-safety role or guarding James, where he did well coaxing him into jumpers, Biyombo on Frye isn’t optimal
The Cavs run the same initial action (#2), this time the Dellavedova-Jefferson produces a Jefferson cut (DeRozan, not Joseph, is on Jeffferson now). Biyombo is caught between helping at the rim and staying on Frye.
And, yeah, again, Frye is too good to have looks like this.
Next time down (#3), the same play call results in a Dellavedova lob to James.
Notice how that time, Frye came up from the corner to the wing, adding an additional wrinkle and leaving Biyombo in an impossible spot.
The Cavs did the Raptors the favor of going away from this on the next play so James could attack one-on-one in semi-transition.
In the words of Fabolous, do me a favor, don’t do me no favors.
They don’t, going right back to the action (#4) top produce a James post-lob for Jefferson. That’s made possible by the Dellavedova down-screen, which causes Joseph and DeRozan to switch the action.
The next time down (#5), the Raptors defend the pet play about as perfectly as they can. Joseph and DeRozan don’t have to switch, Jefferson doesn’t have a cut lane to draw Biyombo away from Frye, Patterson does well to drop back against Dellavedova (since the Raptors no longer care about James in the mid-range or outside the arc, as a matter of strategy), and Biyombo keeps a good space around Frye’s flare.
And so of course, Dellavedova hits a tough contested runner.
Are you tired of seeing that play yet? Imagine how the Raptors felt. Every tweak, and the Cavs had a counter. Luckily, a Cavs timeout lends a reprieve, and the introduction of Irving back in for Shumpert will prove paramount for the Raptors keeping pace while Cleveland’s rolling.
Irving returns
Lineup: Irving-Dellavedova-Jefferson-James-Frye
Time: 2:28
Start Score: 89-88
End Score: 96-96 (-1)
In theory, these same sets with Irving in place of Shumpert should be even better offensively. Even if he were just the strong-corner spot-up threat, he’s a much better shooter than Shumpert, and he’s going to draw a better defender than Shumpert in most cases in the event he puts the ball on the floor.
Instead, they have Irving trail through a James screen and then drift tot he corner (bumping Jefferson up toward the wing), as James comes up to screen for Dellavedova. Patterson drops back, and it initially looks like Biyombo is going to tag James, so Patterson gives Dellavedova a bit more attention (attention that should probably be coming from DeRozan while Patterson recovers to the rim). Again, Frye’s gravity is obvious.
Dellavedova swings to Frye, with Biyombo timing off of James well to recover. Meanwhile, Patterson scurries back to defend James on the block, while Joseph gets ready to help at the rim and DeRozan zones up the weak side.
Unfortunately, the threat of James passing to either the corner or Jefferson allows Jefferson an edge, and he cuts for a dunk.
We get a break on the next play, as Patterson fouls James after having the ball taken from him.
On the next play, the Cavs run a similar action (#6, though it’s not exactly the same), with Irving passing James in trailing and drifting to the corner while Dellavedova and James engage in a pick-and-roll.
Lowry and Carroll guard the initial action fairly well, but James is able to cut past Carroll into the paint (Carroll may have been expecting a re-screen?), and Biyombo can’t help from his position on the perimeter on Frye. That’s an easy James dunk.
Again, we see the lost value with Biyombo on Frye instead of in a corner (although it’d be tougher against Irving than Shumpert) or James (who, again, he’s seen spot duty on and done well with).
Out of a sideline out of bounds, the Cavs go back to that pet play (#7), this time with the roles of Irving (Shumpert) and Dellavedova reversed. It’s Irving who enters to James at the right elbow, then sets a screen for Jefferson. Jefferson, ever the veteran, notices Patterson try to jump the action and doesn’t bother to wait for Irving to turn into the down-screen, instead taking off for the rim (and a terrific pass from James).
“They fell into a play that we had trouble with,” Casey said in an understatement after the game. “They fell into a play that we had trouble with. They just started running the options off of it. It’s something we will figure out.”
Despite the onslaught, the Raptors’ offense was able to keep up, and that last Jefferson dunk only put the Cavs up two.
“I definitely thought we had finally got over the curve of how we want to play here in this building,” James said. “But you’ve still got to get stops.”
KLOE
So after all of this, Cleveland went back to it once more, and the Raptors finally stopped it. Nearly nine minutes without a stop, ended, thanks almost entirely to the singular efforts of Lowry, all over the floor on the possession. You’re probably bored and annoyed of reading about the same play over and over again, so imagine how Lowry felt getting beat by it.
Look at the whole thing together first.
Lowry is in Joseph’s normal defensive spot from the start of the quarter (Lowry was in DeRozan’s place primarily), and his first impact is to drop under the Irving-Jefferson screen to prevent the Jefferson cut, and then recover quickly on to Irving as he comes up top, eliminating the chance for a pick-and-roll with James.
He then sprints the lane, arms in the air, to prevent an Irving cut from producing anything.
Irving continues his route into a pick-and-pop with Frye. Lowry and Biyombo switch, and Lowry does well to deny Frye the ball in the post.
And then he was able to contest the late-clock corner three.
“We got one stop on it, which was big,” Casey said. “We found a way at the end of it on the last possession after a timeout to kind of talk about it, and we got a stop and they went away from it. It’s something that they kind of fell into, and when you’ve got LeBron James as your point guard at the elbow, they executed pretty well. We finally found a solution for it at the end, but it was almost too late.”
Almost too late is right, and Casey has continually mentioned the need for the Raptors to score during these Cleveland stretches, implicitly acknowledging that they’re going to happen. The Cavs may have done themselves a disservice going away from something that worked so well – was 14 scores in 15 possessions really that bad?
“They didn’t stop it, no,” Tyronn Lue said. “They had one stop, I think, throughout the course of that whole transition. But we came back and tried to run something similar. We went to the handoff and tried to go backdoor and we turned the basketball over, and it kind of seemed to get momentum going the other way.”
He’s right (obviously). The Cavs did go back to something similar once more (flipped a little, and with a preceding action before the James elbow entry). And once more, Lowry made an impact.
So, hey, it’s great to see that the Raptors were at least adjusting and trying different things against this set, to varying levels of effectiveness. From there, their defense was much better. It’s unclear if they can stop that five-man bench unit, but there are still a few tweaks they can make, specifically how they use Biyombo, and they’ve shown that they can really score when Irving or Love are on the floor if not.
This series is so much fun. I really can’t wait to see how Game 5 shakes out.
