Finally. After what feels like an eternity despite being only a little more than two days, the Toronto Raptors get to host the Cleveland Cavaliers to tip off their second-round series. You’ve likely heard, read, and thought this series to death by now. There’s not a great deal left to say, especially since the Raptors did us all the favor of eliminating the can’t-win-a-Game-1 storylines last round. This is just a basketball game, one being played at one of the most favorable home arenas in the league.
“Hopefully it gave us confidence,” head coach Dwane Casey said at shootaround. “Just the fact that it got that monkey and all that hoopla and the narrative that we can’t win Game 1 for whatever reason off of our back. It gave us that confidence.”
From the Cavaliers’ perspective, this is all happening pretty quickly. They took seven games to get out of round one and had just a single practice day between series. They’ve been through enough postseasons to know what to expect and how to approach the Raptors, but it’s worth noting that a LeBron James team hasn’t had to come off of a seven-game series and dive right into a new series in some time.
“Just jumping from one team, where you prepare for them every day for the last two weeks, seven games, and not having much time to prepare for the No. 1 team in the Eastern Conference this year, is going to be a challenging turnaround for us tonight,” James said.
In a series that will have to be won at the margins, that’s at least a small one in Toronto’s favor as the series gets going. It makes it something close to imperative to get an early victory here at home.
Game 1 tips off at 8 on TNT (Ian Eagle, Brent Barry & Allie LaForce) and TSN on TV and on TSN 1050 on radio. You can check out the full game preview here. Your officials are Derrick Stafford, Pat Fraher, and John Goble.
Required reading
Normally I do a link dump here, but I’ll just refer you to our series preview hub today. Everything you need is in there.
Raptors updates
With the injury report now clear and Fred VanVleet no longer a game-to-game call, the Raptors will look as they’ve come to look most of the year. They’ll use a 10-man rotation, won’t hesitate to shorten that to nine if need be (leveraging their star-and-bench groups, specifically the Kyle Lowry-and-bench group) later, and in the interim bet on their all-bench unit to win the rare minutes where James is not on the court. Toronto’s bench is good enough that it’s become a primary focus of Cleveland’s preparation.
“I think handling their second unit,” Tyronn Lue said when asked what the Cavs are trying to key in on. “Their second unit is a big part of what they do. They come up with a lot of energy, they score the basketball, they defend well. So we gotta just be able to come out and just hold that second unit down as best as we can.”
There are a lot of smaller questions that will be quarter-to-quarter issues. OG Anunoby and Pascal Siakam will split time on James, with Serge Ibaka possibly factoring in. Ibaka’s primary responsibility will likely be Kevin Love, unless the Raptors trust an improved Jonas Valanciunas with those duties. Who Cleveland starts each night will probably dictate Toronto’s matchups a fair amount, though they’re unlikely to change the starting lineup unless things get dire. All things to watch for once the ball’s rolled in but there’s not much more to say about it for now.
PG: Kyle Lowry, Delon Wright, Fred VanVleet, Lorenzo Brown
SG: DeMar DeRozan, Norman Powell
SF: OG Anunoby, C.J. Miles
PF: Serge Ibaka, Pascal Siakam
C: Jonas Valanciunas, Jakob Poeltl, Lucas Nogueira
TBD: None
OUT: None
INACTIVE: Malachi Richardson, Alfonzo McKinnie
Cavaliers updates
LeBron James played 39:53 or more in six of Cleveland’s seven first-round games. The lone game he did not was a blowout loss. Depending on the flow of the game, the Raptors figure to see James for somewhere between 40 and 44 minutes, and despite his comments following Sunday’s Game 7 about being exhausted, James quickly killed any talk of him being worn down for Game 1.
“I’ll be alright. I’ll be fine,” James said.
The Raptors weren’t really believing James this week anyway, downplaying any fatigue factor and only saying they would take any advantage they can get if it’s there. At shootaround, Lue made it seem as if he may manage James’ minutes a little more closely early in the series since James led the league in regular season and first-round minutes, but when push comes to shove, James is going to play significant minutes.
“Just gotta be smart about the situation,” Lue said. “I know he wants to play and play a lot, but we’ve got to be smart because we play every other day, so there’s not a lot of time really to recover.”
The far bigger question is who will start for Cleveland game to game. They used 29 different starting lineups during the season and four in the first round alone. Lue declined to reveal his starters at shootaround and again in his pre-game availability, so check back for their starters closer to tip off.
UPDATE: Cleveland is starting the lineup we guessed below.
PG: George Hill, Jordan Clarkson, Jose Calderon
SG: J.R. Smith, Rodney Hood
SF: Kyle Korver, Jeff Green, Cedi Osman
PF: LeBron James, Larry Nance
C: Kevin Love, Tristan Thompson, Ante Zizic
TBD: None
OUT: None
INACTIVE: Kendrick Perkins, Okaro White
Pre-game news and notes
- Here’s Dwane Casey on the importance of having home court for Game 1: “They’re the team to beat in our conference, they’ve been that team over the years, and so that’s one reason why we did work hard to get home-court advantage. For whoever we played, but now it’s Cleveland. We cherish that and we worked hard for it. That’s why each home-court game for us is important, especially tonight it’s important to make sure we take care of home.”
- More good Casey here, on having the KLOE version of Kyle Lowry so far: “He’s really playing at a high level right now, playing with a lot of confidence…He’s excited, he’s ready to play. It’s a different Kyle than the years in the past. A little bit more confident. All the stuff, the shooting, that he had the past few years I thought affected him a little bit. But totally different guy right now.”
- One more Casey, on OG Anunoby: “I know you guys probably hate him a lot because he’s a man of few words, which I love. Except on the court when he doesn’t talk on defense. But he doesn’t say a lot. How he treats you guys is the way he treats everyone, so don’t feel neglected.” I don’t. I love how he is.
Assorted
- I’ll be posting some updates/quotes/T-shirt news/etc regularly on my Instagram story throughout the playoffs.
- The viewing party in Maple Leaf Square opens up at 6 p.m.
- Here are the shirts for Game 1:
A little different for round two. pic.twitter.com/ReJfWd4WoH
— Blake Murphy (@BlakeMurphyODC) May 1, 2018
- The Cavs are wearing matching grey suits again. The Raptors are wearing…this.
Eh, what’s up doc? pic.twitter.com/0HLZcwEYIL
— Toronto Raptors (@Raptors) May 1, 2018
The line
Game 1: Raptors -7
Series: Raptors -200 (implied probability of 66.7 percent)
The Raptors are 7-point favorites with a 215 over-under. That is a pretty notable line, on top of the Raptors being firm series favorites. That spread is in line with Toronto’s home games against the Washington Wizards, and it will probably stand as the largest line of the series, barring injury. The fatigue advantage and home-court advantage both play a factor here. It’s worth remembering that more goes into the lines than just the expected outcome, but a lot of the ancillary factors would probably shorten the line for Toronto is anything – oddsmakers aren’t going to take a strong position against James and invite Cavs underdog action if they don’t believe the Raptors are legitimate favorites.
