Gameday: Cavaliers @ Raptors, Dec. 16

The Cleveland Cavaliers rolls into town to engage in battle with our beloved Raptors. Certainly not a team that the Raptors would consider firm competition, but maybe a team that the Raptors should empathize with. The Cavaliers and the Raptors have both had megastars leave their franchises in recent years, and while the Raptors foundation is much stronger, at least the fanbases can reach common ground on that. Although, if any of the Raptors players wanted to suggest that the “East still runs through us” they would have a much better claim to that then the Cavaliers did last year.

There isn’t a strong case to be made for the Cavaliers to stir up trouble for the Raptors in this one. The Raptors have made their money beating the teams that are definitively worse than them so far this year, and the Cavaliers certainly fall into that category. The team out of Cleveland has wonderfully paired one of the worst offenses in the league, with a defense of the same pedigree. The talents of Tristan Thompson and Kevin Love have helped provide the Cavaliers with some semblance of competence, but nothing that can get them near the playoff picture.

The aforementioned front court is uniquely equipped to make life difficult for the Raptors at least in one way – by getting after it on the offensive glass.

Thompson, for his part, has been a one man wrecking crew. He’s gobbling up 4 offensive rebounds a game. This game should be a great opportunity for Gasol to continue his great run of form, and to do it against a true offensive glass-eater in Thompson. A player who should help prepare Gasol for the Celtics front-court that got the better of him earlier in the season. But outside of that the Cavaliers guards don’t do a terrific job of servicing him in the pick n’ roll. So, if you keep Thompson off the glass you can suppress a lot of what he’s bringing to the floor.

As far as the Cavaliers guards, they’ve recently switched up the rotation. Darius Garland is still getting the start, but he’s checking out of the first quarter within the first five minutes in favour of Matthew Dellevadova. ‘The Human Bedbug’ adds a bit more stability to the Cavaliers main players, and allows them to reliably run the ball through them. Where as the athleticism and energy that Garland brings seems better served with the second unit next to other young players like Kevin Porter Jr. and Larry Nance Jr. While the Cavaliers haven’t yet won with this new break in minutes, they’ve liked the way style of play they’ve gotten in response.

“I think that group has really good experience, No. 1,” Beilein said. “And some guys in there are great facilitators on that team. (Garland) can feed off that and they move the ball. He does a good job of getting into spaces and then defensively that team has played really well too.”

And for the Raptors, while the game against the Nets wasn’t a panacea and there’s still tweaks to be made and things to work through, they beat a team that just beat the 76ers, and returned some normalcy to their defensive scheme and offensive sets. Siakam was able to dominate in a way that was reminiscent of the early season, and Norman Powell’s consistency continues to be a welcome addition to an offense that’s lost it’s way a little bit.

Hopefully this game against the Cavs can help the Raptors recapture so much of what had their offense humming earlier, and will allow them to operate out of their set defense with regularity. It’s never a good idea to count your chickens before they hatch, but the Raptors have a great opportunity to collect some wins (Cavs, Pistons, Wizards, Mavericks, Pacers) before their home and home with the Celtics. This game can be the first step.