A second day of practice in preparation for LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers didn’t exactly bring anything new or earth-shattering from the Toronto Raptors. Mostly, they know what’s ahead of them. They’ve drawn James and the Cavaliers in the postseason for a third year in a row, and while the pieces on both sides have changed significantly over that time, the problems James creates haven’t changed much.
More than anything, the Raptors face the eternal basketball dilemma of whether to load up to stop a star or let said star go off and neutralize his teammates. Head coach Dwane Casey wouldn’t tip his hand in terms of specifics, saying that whatever they set out to do, it could change game to game or even quarter to quarter. Digging a little deeper, it sounds very much like the Raptors intend to guard James one-on-one as much as they can, preventing the rest of the Cavaliers from getting going.
“There’s not one right way or wrong way – if he’s scoring on it, it’s not right – but there’s one thing that they’re gonna live with and go with,” Casey said. “You have to understand that. Like I said, we’re gonna have different looks, different approaches to how to guard to him, to guard their team. He’s shown he’s gonna score his points. Now what you can’t do is let three or four other guys come up and have career nights.”
Conceding that the approach will change doesn’t mean the Raptors will be panicky. The hope is to be flexible while staying within their game plan, which is a fine balancing act.
“I think that’s one thing about playing against him – you have to pick your poison,” Kyle Lowry said. “You have to stick with your game plan, what you want to do and ride with it. You have to make adjustments but stick to your game plan and have confidence in it.”
This – guarding him with as little help as possible – would seem to make the most sense based on the available quantitative and anecdotal data. It is much easier said than done, though, and the task of handling James one-on-one will fall largely on young players in OG Anunoby and Pascal Siakam. Anunoby in particular seems completely unphased by the size of the matchup in front of him.
“Me personally, I want to play him,” Anunoby said. “He’s one of the best players to play. We want to beat them…I’m pretty confident. I think each time I’ve played him it’s gotten better guarding him, so, I’m confident.”
Anunoby’s unflappability – he also added an “I have no reason to be nervous” – will be important here. So, too, will Siakam’s endless energy reserve. Serge Ibaka and Norman Powell could factor in, too. And since it will almost surely be a topic of conversation throughout the series, Casey is already warning his team not to get distracted by the officiating. Find where the line is for fouls, play to it and deal with it, and continue being physical with James around the whistle.
“You have to be. You have to be and he respects that. I guarantee you he respects that. And he expects it, too,” Casey said of the physicality. “It’s gonna be a physical series from both sides. They’ll be physical, we have to be physical, and that’s the way the game has to be played. Now what we have to do is draw the line where it’s a foul and not a foul, and understand how the officials are gonna call it and adjust, and not complain, not look at ’em for help, take care of business ourselves. But we have to understand how they’re gonna call the game. So that’s what it’s gonna be. It’s gonna be, it has to be a physical game.”
Notes
- I’ll be posting some updates/quotes/T-shirt news/etc regularly on my Instagram story throughout the playoffs.
- Over at Vice Sports, I wrote about why this time could actually be different for the Raptors.
- Over at The Athletic, I took a look at how well the Raptors stuck to the culture reset, statistically, in Round One.
- There were no injury updates to speak of really today. Fred VanVleet is as fine as he’s going to be, OG Anunoby is no longer slowed by the right ankle he rolled in the last round, and the light wrap on Pascal Siakam’s left wrist is just a part of the usual bumps and scrapes of the grind.
- There was more talk of the benefit of the rest advantage, this time from Kyle Lowry: “We definitely have to come out with energy and play with some physicality against them. They’ve really just come off a series yesterday where they were banging and bumping for seven games, and bumping and grinding. We’ve got to to out there and hopefully we’re ready to go. I think our energy has been great. I think the days off will definitely have helped us a little bit.”
- Dwane Casey is not a believer that LeBron James actually fatigues, though: “You believe he’s tired? I don’t believe it. I’ll believe it when I see him sitting over on the bench, and I haven’t seen that very much ’cause he’s playing at such a high level. It’s amazing the type of condition he’s in. We’re not banking on that. What’s your question?… If he told you he’s tired, he’s not being very honest, I don’t think. I don’t think he’s tired, if that’s what you’re asking. I’m not saying he’s a lying man but I don’t think he’s tired.”
- And Lowry isn’t taking the bait: “I don’t believe it, I bet he’ll be ready to go tomorrow.”
- The Raptors do intend to push the pace to test Cleveland’s speed and energy level, though, especially with the second unit. Here’s Pascal Siakam explaining: “Yeah, for sure, and that’s something that we pride ourself on, and having guys that can really move their feet and run, Jak is a big but he can run the floor as well, and having me out there, so just playing the type of basketball we played all season, fast-paced and just picking up guys and making it hard on them.”
- Our series preview content will continue tomorrow. We’ve got a roundtable still to come and the usual outside perspectives. Today, I did the deep data dive and the Q&A with a Cavs writer, while Will had the podcast for you.
- We’ll end on just a terrific OG Anunoby quote, asked about not having his usual strength advantage against James: “I still feel that way against him. He’s pretty strong but I feel like I’m strong too.”
