It’s time for the ultimate test.
59 regular season wins were nice. So, too, was a six-game defeat of the Washington Wizards in the opening round of the postseason. Both of those accomplishments mean peanuts, though, if the Toronto Raptors can’t get past the team that awaits them next.
As expected, LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers will face the Raptors in the second round of the playoffs. For Toronto, this upcoming series serves as an excellent opportunity for the team to showcase how much it has evolved over the past 12 months. Gone is the timid offence that plagued the Raptors during their past two postseason runs. Instead, Toronto now operates a more versatile, pass-heavy, shot-happy offence. The Raptors drastic offensive shakeup was implemented as a result of the Cavaliers’ postseason dominance, so here’s to hoping the Dinos can showcase their adjustments against the team that inspired changes in the first place.
Compared to previous Cavaliers rosters the Raptors have faced in postseasons past, this year’s Cleveland squad is significantly weaker. Aside from James, Cleveland lacks reliable secondary scoring options. Kevin Love has been abysmal so far these playoffs with first-round averages of 10.4 points per game on 33.4 percent shooting. Excluding James and Love, no Cavalier averaged more than 10 points per game in the first round. It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise then that Cleveland only averaged 94.9 points per game in the first round against Indiana, a stark contrast to the team’s regular-season average of 110.9. In fact, the 105 points scored by the Cavaliers in their Game 7 win over the Pacers was the highest scoring total by Cleveland in a game that series.
If Cleveland is going to eliminate Toronto from the postseason for a third-straight year, James will have to continue thriving with an unprecedentedly-high workload. Among players that have tallied 100 or more minutes this postseason, James has the third-highest usage rate at 34.5 percent and has scored a whopping 42.1 percent of Cleveland’s points. He’s also played 288 minutes, which is, you guessed it, the most minutes played by anyone these playoffs.
Even though he’s on the floor constantly, LeBron’s efficiency has been superb: 55.3 percent on 21 field goal attempts per game. It’s no surprise the future Hall of Famer has been able to average 34.4 points per game with the terrific shot selection he displays nightly. Are we sure James isn’t an alien, a cyborg, or something in between?
James getting his numbers is inevitable, but even so, the Raptors should feel confident in their ability to contain the Cavs’ supporting cast because of the former’s stellar defence. The Raptors had a top-ten defensive rating during the regular season at 104.9 and thrived in particular when defending in transition and against spot-up opportunities. Those defensive strengths should come in handy against a perimetre-centric team like the Cavaliers.
For Toronto, slowing LeBron down will prove to be a nearly impossible task, as it always has been. If the Raptors are to have any success containing James, it will start by limiting his ability to score on drives. The King scored 44 percent of his points in the paint against Indiana in the first round.
Even though James can handle a sizeable offensive burden, I’d be worried as a member of the Cavaliers coaching staff. At age 33, in his 15th season (and 13th postseason run), LeBron has shown glimpses of fatigue these playoffs. He had to check out of Game 7 against the Pacers after suffering from cramps near the end of the third quarter. As we all recall, this isn’t the first time cramps have affected James. Hopefully, for Cleveland, James’ fatigue issues don’t reemerge as the playoffs continue.
Compounding the Cavaliers offensive reliance on James is the team’s laughable defence. Cleveland had the second-highest (in other words, the second worst) defensive rating during the regular season at 109.5, which ranked better than only the lottery-bound Phoenix Suns. While the team’s defence hasn’t been quite as horrendous through seven postseason games, you can expect that the Raptors will have no trouble creating highly efficient looks all series long. Toronto averaged an impressive 122.7 points in three regular-season games against Cleveland during the regular season, and there’s no reason to expect a regression from that standpoint in the conference semi-finals.
This time around, don’t expect a series that takes after the laughable Cleveland/Toronto playoff matchups from the past two seasons. Instead, this should be a far closer series between one team trying to stay on top of the Eastern Conference peak, and another trying to climb the mountain for the first time. The Raptors are the better of these two teams on paper. But as we’ve been reminded on multiple occasions over the past decade and a half, any team with James on its roster has a shot at championship glory. That is the reality that exists in today’s NBA until proven otherwise.
If you’re having trouble finding out what time a game is on or which station is broadcasting a game, be sure to check out the Canadian broadcast schedule for the upcoming Raptors/Cavaliers series.
