The Raptors will play the final game of the year and decade tonight, against the Cleveland Cavaliers at home. It’s ironic that Toronto will be closing the decade against the team that dominated them so much for parts of it, but will be doing so as reigning NBA champions, and with the Cavaliers as bottom-dwellers in the standings. It’s a testament to how much of an evolution the past decade has been for this franchise, as well as how much of an amazing ride last year really was.
Despite the championship pedigree and mental toughness that has stuck within the team’s culture over the early part of this season, going to war without the services of Pascal Siakam, Norm Powell, and Marc Gasol has been tough. The Raptors will have no choice but to continue to try and trudge through their difficult schedule over the Holiday Season however, closing out what will be the busiest month of the regular season (16 games in December) with an unprecedented level of bad injury luck. Toronto has lost 100 man-games so far this season due to injury, compared to 131 all of last season.
After splitting a tough home and home against the Celtics and falling in the second night of a back to back at home against a gritty Oklahoma City squad, it’s just about getting back in the win column at this point, so a date with the 10-22 Cleveland Cavaliers may just be what the doctor ordered.
With the 4th worst net rating in the league, the Cavs are simply not very good at basketball. With Collin Sexton’s lack of shooting, Darius Garland’s inconsistency as a rookie, Kevin Love providing little to no resistance on the defensive end, and an overall lack of cohesion on both sides of the ball under John Beilein’s system, it’s been ugly to the say the least. Their play over the past 2 weeks though (since the Raptors last beat them on Dec 16th) has been much better though, with wins in 4 of their past 5 contests, albeit against teams at the bottom of the standings. The Cavs are 4-12 on the road, and coming off of an ugly win at home against Minnesota on Saturday, in which they overcame shooting 42% from the floor and an NBA season-high 29 turnovers, by grinding it out defensively and dominating the glass to beat the Wolves.
If Collin Sexton is your leading scorer though, you probably don’t have a great offense. Sexton is averaging nearly 18 a game on 45% shooting, but isn’t a great passer or creator out of the pick-and-roll, and doesn’t yet have an outside shot to complement his ability to create off of the drive as well. The Cavaliers aren’t a great shooting team, with 31% of their points coming from behind the arc at a 34% clip. Kevin Love is the only real productive outside shooter in terms of volume and percentage at 39% on over 6 attempts a game, but Cedi Osman and Darius Garland (especially recently) can shoot it as well. And Garland, despite some encouraging signs in this recent stretch of good play for Cleveland, is still proving to be inconsistent with his production, which is to be expected from a rookie coming off an injury-plagued season in college.
In desperate need of a backcourt shake-up, the Cavs made a trade last week, sending Jordan Clarkson to the Utah Jazz in exchange for Dante Exum, and two second round picks. Exum made his debut for the Cavs on Friday against the Celtics and has averaged just over 8 points in his first 2 games as a Cavalier in about 15 minutes of action per game. It will be interesting to see how Beilein will plan to use Exum in this game, to perhaps add some length in defending what we can probably expect to be small guard-heavy lineups that the Raptors will throw out.
The Cavaliers will also be trying to work Kevin Love back into the lineup, who is expected to play after missing the Minnesota game on Saturday due to a right hip contusion. Love has averaged 16.7 points and 10.6 rebounds in just over 30 minutes per game this season, and has been in the eye of the trade rumour storm for Cleveland. But the 12-year vet’s salary of nearly $29 million this season, and about $30 million a season for the next 3 years will make any sort of potential transcation involving him, a difficult one to make.
With a severely depleted wing and front court rotation, the Raptors will once again have to rely on their backcourt of Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet to guard the tandem of Sexton and Garland as well as add the necessary offensive punch with Pascal and Norm out of the lineup. Lowry has certainly accepted the scoring load over the past 6 games in Pascal’s absence, averaging over 25 points a game on just over 60% true shooting, to go along with 7.5 assists and 5 boards a game over that time frame. With that kind of production, don’t be surprised to see K-Low heading to his 6th all-star game.
What’s been more surprising over the past 2 games for the Raptors though has been the play of Patrick McCaw, Nick Nurse’s rotation darling who seemed to be getting run no matter how he played early on in the season. But in the past 2 games, against pretty good teams in the Celtics and Thunder, McCaw has averaged over 15 points a game, has shot well from 3, and shown positive signs on the defensive end as well. Whether or not that the Raptors can get consistent contribution from him is still a question, but if he can help keep the shift afloat in the backcourt and on the wing until Norm and Pascal are back, it would be more than any of us would have expected from him. Playing McCaw alongside Fred and Kyle makes the Raptors super small though, which could be tricky depending on the size of opposing matchups.
The Cavs could pose some interior matchup problems with their bigs Tristan Thompson, Kevin Love, and Larry Nancy Jr., who offer size and rebounding ability that will probably pose issues for the Raptors, who struggle to secure defensive rebounds (ranking 27th in the league in defensive rebounding percentage). Cleveland is one of the league’s best offensive rebounding teams, with an offensive rebounding percentage of nearly 30% (good for 3rd in the league), led by Thompson who collects 4 offensive rebounds a game. Serge Ibaka and Chris Boucher will need to have big rebounding nights for the Raptors to effectively close defensive possessions.
Overall though, this one should be winnable for the Raptors if they can take care of the glass defensively and take advantage of Cleveland’s miscues with fast-break opportunities of their own. With one day’s rest, and hopefully a renewed sense of confidence after a let-down game against OKC, Toronto should have the requisite motivation to take care of business in this one.
Game info
- Game time: 7:00 pm EST
- Venue: Scotiabank Arena
- TV: TSN4
- Radio: 590
Raptors lineup updates
- PG: Kyle Lowry, Terence Davis
- SG: Fred VanVleet, Malcolm Miller
- SF: Patrick McCaw, Oshae Brissett, Stanley Johnson
- PF: OG Anunoby, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson
- C: Serge Ibaka, Chris Boucher
- Injuries: Pascal Siakam (groin), Norman Powell (shoulder), Marc Gasol (hamstring), Matt Thomas (finger), and Dewan Hernandez (ankle) remain out.
Cavaliers lineup updates
- PG: Darius Garland, Mathew Dellavedova
- SG: Collin Sexton, Brandon Knight, Dante Exum
- SF: Cedi Osman, Kevin Porter Jr., Alfonzo McKinnie
- PF: Kevin Love, Larry Nance Jr., Tyler Cook
- C: Tristan Thompson, John Henson, Ante Zizic
- Injuries: Kevin Love has been day-to-day with a right hip contusion but is likely to make his return tonight, while Dylan Windler remains out (lower leg injury).
The line
The Raptors are favoured at -9.5, and the over-under is set at 217.0.
