Raptors 98, Cavaliers 83 | Box Score | Quick Reaction | Reaction Podcast
For all intents and purposes, Wednesday’s game between the Toronto Raptors and Cleveland Cavaliers didn’t mean much.
The Raptors entered locked into the third seed with the Milwaukee Bucks as an opponent. While they had talked up trying to find some more chemistry and get more repetitions in now that Kyle Lowry was back and had yet to play much with the team’s new additions (the presumed starting lineup has only played 40 ineffective minutes together), the human body took that experiment out of their hands – DeMar DeRozan was dealing with an illness for several days and the team made the correct call to let him sit this one out. Serge Ibaka followed suit, and while it was a course-correction after head coach Dwane Casey said Tuesday that everyone would play, it was hardly egregious to change plans once DeRozan was ruled out. Short of getting to play their main rotation together a bit more, the Raptors didn’t have much to accomplish here. Come in, get some reps in, get a sweat going, and leave healthy.
The Cavaliers took an even more aggressive approach to calling this game a farce, sitting LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love, and Kay Felder, only the latter of whom is actually injured. Cleveland actually had something to lose here, with the top seed in the Eastern Conference still up for grabs, but after collapsing twice against the Atlanta Hawks twice last week and taxing their players with far too heavy a load in those games, they opted to fold up their pursuit of the top spot here. It’s justifiable, to be sure. The science backs the rest strategy up, and the Cavs are confident enough to be unconcerned with home court in the Eastern Conference Finals if they wind up meeting the Boston Celtics. It’s only a little strange because they went all-out for it until the final two games.
That put Toronto in an interesting position, albeit an uncertain one. Losing to the Cavs would keep the chance of the Cavs taking the one-seed alive (if the Celtics lost to a resting Bucks team), a worthwhile end because it would mean the Raptors, if all goes well, wouldn’t have to see Cleveland until the third round. But losing intentionally, or at least not trying to win, comes with some costs: It means no reps for Lowry, who’s only been back for three games; It means no shots for DeMarre Carroll and Patrick Patterson, who are rhythm players; It means no touches for Jonas Valanciunas, who is riding some momentum as he looks to once again become “Playoff J.V.;” And it means putting young players out there for extended stretches with the idea in the back of their heads that losing is the end goal, which is probably not the best idea from a culture standpoint, even for a night.
The Raptors could have made that decision with more certainty and been justified in doing so. But there was also the issue of potentially not being able to out-tank a Cavaliers team playing a pair of players who literally just signed earlier in the day and a cast of veterans just trying to keep their calves in shape for capris season. And there was the issue that Boston would win anyway, and the Raptors would have sacrificed those reps and chance at positive development for nothing. If they were being honest, Casey and company would probably admit that they didn’t want to send the message to their team that they can be looking ahead past the first round, too.
And so they went ahead and treated it like half a game, resting two starters, playing Lowry and Valanciunas only for the first half, and turning things over to Raptors 905 for the bulk of the second half. Lowry hit a three, attacked the rim, and made some quality passes to teammates. Valanciunas made some iffy plays early but bullied his way to 13-and-7 in 15 minutes. Patrick Patterson knocked down a three. They came in, got some reps in, got a sweat going, and left healthy.
From there, the result was a messy, mostly meaningless game from which only a few things can really be taken. With neither side really going all-out, there’s not a lot of great information to be gleaned, and any positives come with qualifiers. There was also just a lot of straight-up weirdness, like Valanciunas delivering on his long-held promise to hit a three in a game, or the game at one point including six 905 alum on the floor at once (five Raptors and Edy Tavares, who the Cavaliers scooped up earlier in the day to further hurt Jerry Stackhouse’s title chances). If nothing else, this game was a pretty nice affirmation for the 905 system, with Tavares looking great in his 24 minutes with six points, 10 rebounds, and six blocks, Delon Wright continuing to make a push for playoff minutes, Norman Powell coming back to life with a massive 25-point outburst (he really seems to love these kind of games), Pascal Siakam looking much better than before his assignment, and Bruno Caboclo getting to show off a little bit of his off-radar improvement from this season.
The positive here is that the Raptors’ young bench squad proved incapable of blowing what was at one point was a 21-point lead. It got trimmed, but they heald steady in keeping it to 15 at the final buzzer, and nobody left with a plus-minus of worse than minus-5 (poor Lucas Nogueira). The Twitter feed was blowing up with anger that the Raptors weren’t intentionally or accidentally blowing the game, but when zoomed out a bit, this was mostly a positive evening. The Cavs were in tank mode, too, but they were playing a hungry and effective Tavares and a few veterans who could at least test the young Raptors. There were good signs, caveats aside, and there’s not much choice but to take them as such. If nothing else, appreciate what Caboclo showed here. He looked really solid at both ends, scoring a career-high 11 points and showing the improved instincts as a defender we’ve been trumpeting in the 905 coverage on this site. Seriously. Caboclo looked like a borderline NBA player, and even if it’s garbage time against an opponent tanking, well, what else are you expecting from a game like this? Take the positives Caboclo provided. There were plenty. He was downright good. It was fun.
And after all the hand-wringing, the Celtics won anyway, and the Raptors blowing this thing intentionally would have been for naught. Not that Powell ever would have let the Raptors lose this, anyway. Again, this was mostly meaningless and there isn’t a lot to be taken from it. The Raptors got out healthy, finished the season with a fine 51-31 record (with a net rating that suggests a higher expected win total and one of the highest value lost to injury ratings in the league), and didn’t damage their playoff chances in any way whatsoever. It’s exactly what they were likely hoping for from a game like this.
And Bruno!
