Pre-game news & notes: Powell and Patterson draw into starting lineup

So, uhh, we kind of haven’t left ourselves a ton to talk about ahead of this one, eh? All of the angst and concern after a Game 1 shellacking at the hands to LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers has left us to wring hands and plot changes and debate lineups for the last 48 hours, and I’m kind of seeing blurry about it at this point. More on lineups when they come down.

Maybe we’re supposed to feel like this, though. I mean, this is the curse of success, right? Raptor fans are no longer playing with house money, and there’s no longer the excitement of initially linear development to ride along. Three years ago, they were happy to be there. The next was disappointing, but the sustenance of potentially fleeting playoff life was good enough. Last year, the anxiety dissipated after the first round, a major popping of an enormous bubble casting shadow over the entire history of the franchise. Now, though, the Raptors have reached the height that this core can reasonably reach, give or take a pair of wins, and without the promise of a better go-round again next year or even the guarantee they’ll remain on this path from here, the outcome of each second-round game – and not just win-loss, but the perception, the qualitative proximity to the benchmark, the barometer of worthwhileness for this core – feels enormous.

Yes, even with the Raptors as notable underdogs here. What the Cavaliers are doesn’t change who the Raptors are, but it colors how much it matters. Game 2 is probably Toronto’s last best chance to steal one on the road, something they’ll need to know if they’re to take this series. It would also help inform their approach from here – in terms of Game 3 and the future of the franchise.

The game tips off a 7 on TNT and Sportsnet on TV and on TSN 1050 on radio. You can check out the full game preview here. Your officials are Danny Crawford, Sean Corbin, and Sean Wright.

Required reading
Here’s what you need ahead of Game 2, assuming you haven’t been keeping up.

• Game 1 recap, Game 2 preview.
• Some lineup change rumination.
  • A lot more of that in all of the practice/shootaround news & notes.
• Over at The Athletic, I wrote about the Cavs’ 3-point barrage and the pick-your-poison nature of their attack.
  • Raptors Republic readers can get a 20-percent discount off of subscriptions.
• For Vice, I wrote about the Cavs’ kind of punking out the Raptors in Game 1.

Raptors updates
A source has confirmed three of the Raptors’ starters to me: Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan, and Serge Ibaka. That source is my beautiful, wonderful, gigantic brain. A more legitimate source confirms to me that the other two starters are ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. It’s tough to fault Dwane Casey for going with ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, because while he had to change something after the starters came out flat for the sixth time in seven games together on Monday, there are no perfect options. Every change comes with a trade-off – size, rebounding, speed, LeBron James or Kevin Love coverage, and so on. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ are the best bets at finding a middle ground while still putting a best foot forward.

I kid, of course. The last 48 hours have been filled with lineup speculation, and because we’ve discussed so many of the different options already, I’m just going to let you go back and read those until we know the actual starting lineup. That will happen at about 6:30, I’d imagine, so check back for that. A consideration for the small-ball fans: The Cavaliers are ready to funnel things through Kevin Love if that’s the mismatch, though that might be a victory itself if it means less time with ball-in-hand for LeBron James.

"if they start small, they have to worry about us posting Kevin," says Tyronn Lue.

— (((Eric Koreen))) (@ekoreen) May 3, 2017

UPDATE: Your starters are Lowry, Powell, DeRozan, Patterson, and Ibaka. I’m in favor of this move. I still would have gone Tucker over Powell, I think, for the extra James coverage, but having Patterson and Ibaka both as options on James and Love, with the option to switch across four positions, should open up some things defensively. It should also help the Raptors push things off of Cleveland misses a bit more, help spacing a little, and so on. There are risks – Love or James guarded by Powell or DeRozan, a rebounding weakness, and so on – but the Raptors had to try something, and this is among the more logical of choices.

PG: Kyle Lowry, Cory Joseph, Delon Wright, Fred VanVleet
SG: Norman Powell, P.J. Tucker
SF: DeMar DeRozan, DeMarre Carrol, Bruno Caboclo
PF: Patrick Patterson, Pascal Siakam
C: Serge Ibaka, Jonas Valanciunas, Jakob Poeltl, Lucas Nogueira
TBD: None
ASSIGNED: None
OUT: None

Cavaliers updates
As mentioned earlier, Tyronn Lue doesn’t figure to change much here, but there is concern about Toronto’s performance against Cleveland’s bench group. And hey, Lue confirmed about as much in dapping up the Raptors before the game. There’s two ways this can be taken – either Toronto’s on to something with their bench mix and should start a few of those players, or those players are particularly well-suited to take advantage of Cleveland’s slow, aging bench corp.

Lue says in spite of the Cavs game 1 win, he felt Toronto did a good job of trying to take advantage of Cleveland's 2nd unit

— Eric Smith (@Eric__Smith) May 3, 2017

PG: Kyrie Irving, Deron Williams, Kay Felder
SG: J.R. Smith, Iman Shumpert, Dahntay Jones
SF: LeBron James, Kyle Korver, Richard Jefferson
PF: Kevin Love, Derrick Williams, James Jones
C: Tristan Thompson, Channing Frye, Edy Tavares
TBD: None
ASSIGNED: None
OUT: None

Pre-game news and notes

• Today is Tyronn Lue’s 40th birthday. He wants a win for his birthday. I think he should probably have to settle for cake instead. Though if he gets a birthday win tonight, it’s only fair that I get on Friday, right?
• Lue also said he’s unsure why the games in Cleveland have been so lopsided the last two series, acknowledging that the Raptors are a good team. Hot take: LeBron James has something to do with it.
• Dwane Casey declined to reveal his starting lineup before the game. Usually he’ll at least say if they’re keeping things the same, so this may or may not suggest a change. Who knows? Start Bruno, man.
• The emphasis from Casey was once again on ball movement, for its own sake and to neutralize the impact of James as a roamer. “If you don’t move the ball, it’s very unique,” Casey said of James’ presence.

Assorted

• LeBron James is 25 points from passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for second on the NBA’s all-time postseason scoring list. He’s only 250 from passing Michael Jordan for first. Seriously, James is likely going to be the most prolific postseason scorer of all time by the time the playoffs are over. He’s only 32 still!
• It looks like the Cavs are giving out the same shirts tonight as in Game 1, or something very close to it.
• Jurassic Park is open again today, starting at 6 p.m.
  • Raptor fans appear to have traveled really well for this one, so kudos to you guys for repping in The Land.