Sometimes, the right opponent is all it takes for a team to remember who they are, and that was the case for the Raptors with the Cleveland Cavaliers in town on Monday night. With Cleveland fully in the midst of a rebuild, and a lot of their younger players still learning the ropes in the NBA, that provided the perfect opportunity for the Raptors to flex their collective muscles offensively and find their rhythm, and the home team took full advantage, putting up 133 points in a victory that never felt particularly difficult.
While for much of the game the lead stayed just a little too close to call it a blowout in this one, it felt comfortable anyways, with the Raptors responding to every Cleveland attempt to get the deficit into single digits with a run of their own, and they used the game to find their offensive form for a few guys who had been struggling, with Pascal Siakam finding his three-point shot again on the way to 33 points on 5-8 from downtown, Kyle Lowry pouring in 20 on 13 field goal attempts, and Serge Pbaka finding his way to 14 points on 10 shots despite still showing a little bit of rust at times.
After losing 4 of 5 recently when Lowry and Ibaka returned, with a tougher stretch of schedule and the Raptors looking like they didn’t belong as the contender they’d looked like for the first 20 games of the season, this easier stretch of schedule beginning with the Cavs game will be a welcome reprieve for the Raptors heading into their Christmas day matchup with the Boston Celtics. The Raptors looked, over the losses, like a team that wasn’t enjoying themselves, and most basketball teams are better when they’re having fun. Monday night’s game they seemed to be enjoying themselves, with 29 fast break points, running the floor and creating with ease against a porous Cleveland defense, and using the momentum to shoot 50% overall from long distance.
This game somewhat lacked in intensity for long stretches, and that seemed to suit the defending Champions just fine. Even though Lowry needed 37 minutes, and Siakam 36, it would be hard to call them tough minutes, because there wasn’t that type of energy to this game, and this was something that Toronto should be able to build on. Even though it’s tough to look at the schedule and see their struggles against the best teams in the league, sometimes being a team that takes care of business against bad teams is just as important an indicator of future success, and that’s something the Raptors have done this season.
Cleveland, for their part, is a fun young team, with Colin Sexton and Darius Garland scoring 25 and 2, respectively, and they had some fun offensive stretches, but their defense leaves a lot to be desired, and they didn’t have anyone who could slow Pascal Siakam in single coverage, and also weren’t terribly effective bringing the help defender against him.
The Raptors return to action in Detroit on Wednesday night, with the Pistons at 11-16 and having lost to the Washington Wizards on Monday night, and Blake Griffin and Andre Drummond both having missed the game against the Wizards. Both were questionable for that game, but could be available against the Raptors, and the Pistons might provide a hungry opponent in a team that has disappointed this season, and was expected to be more competitive. Still, the talent advantage should be in Toronto’s favor, and give them another opportunity to build further on this victory against the Cavs as they try to rebound from that difficult stretch to open the month and move forward this season.
