For the first time in franchise history, the Toronto Raptors played in the NBA’s Eastern Conference Finals—and it showed. After a strong opening quarter where the Raptors and Cleveland Cavaliers traded blows, the hometown team pulled away, eventually opening up a lead of as many as 31 points. Toronto had a hard time keeping an energetic and much more rested Cavaliers team quiet, especially in the paint.
A Tale of Two Playoff Rounds
Going into the game, the Cleveland Cavaliers could not have experienced a more different playoff run than their Toronto counterparts. Easily moving through the first two rounds—and being the only unbeaten team in this season’s playoffs—the Cavs had the added benefit of a full week off leading up to the series. are the only unbeaten team this postseason, setting records for three-point scoring along the way and playing some of their best basketball this season.
Conversely, the Raptors battled in two highly competitive seven-game series against the Indiana Pacers and Miami Heat. With more minutes played comes the risk of injuries, which befell Jonas Valanciunas mid-way through the Miami series. The loss has certainly quelled their presence in the paint, but if Toronto wants to hang around in this series, it needs to once again find a way to battle using their interior defense if they stand any chance of beating LeBron James and the Cavaliers.
Toronto Raptors Get Bitter First Taste of NBA Conference Finals
Without Valanciunas, who has provided the Raptors with 15 points and 12 boards per game during the postseason, was a massive blow during the series with the Heat. His interior presence was surely missed in game one as the Cavaliers dealt most of their damage in the paint. DeMarre Carroll, well known for his perimeter defense, struggled to keep LeBron James from getting to the basket. LeBron was 11-13 from the floor and ended up with 24 points—22 of those came in the painted area.
After Cleveland set a four-game series record of 77 made three-pointers against the Atlanta Hawks, Toronto were obviously weary of their perimeter threat. But with plenty of firepower in the Cavaliers frontcourt lineup, the Cavs scored 56 points in the paint—the highest total in this year’s postseason. LeBron’s 22 points in the restricted area led to his highest field-goal percentage for his postseason career, shooting an impressive 84.6%.
Choosing to exploit the Raptors weak point, the Cavs shot fewer three-pointers than they made in a single game against the Hawks, proving that they do not need to rely on their jump shot. Cleveland’s 31-point margin of victory is also a franchise record, better only than their 30-point margin set back in game 2 against the Atlanta Hawks.
It wasn’t just on defense that the Raptors came up short. Kyle Lowry had an especially quiet night after averaging the most points of any other player in the East against the Cavaliers during the regular season. Not only did the Raptors get the better of Cleveland during the regular season, but Lowry was the catalyst, averaging 31 points, 8.3 assists and 3.3 steals per game against the Cavs. Most impressively, Lowry shot 66% when facing Cleveland, averaging 11 made buckets per game. It was a different story on the night for him, however. The All-Star point guard only managed eight points on 4-of-14 shooting and made zero of his seven three-point attempts. Going up against Kyrie Irving, Lowry needs to perform better if his team has any chance of progressing to the next round.
Toronto will have trouble adjusting their defense against the Cavs. If they collapse and protect the paint, they leave themselves vulnerable to Cleveland’s superior three-point shooting. The Cavaliers are an extremely versatile team and have no problem attacking the paint or settling for points behind the arc. Optimistically, the Raptors should have Valanciunas back before the end of the series, and they will certainly need him if they want to stand any chance. With him back, they will be more adept at protecting the paint whilst also guarding the perimeter, instead of relying on Patrick Patterson who is not know for his defense.
While Toronto taste the conference finals for the first time in their franchise’s history, the series may well already be over if Dwane Casey can’t come up with an answer.
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