Raptors defense crumbles against Cavaliers backcourt in Game 1 loss
Both Darko Rajakovic & Kenny Atkinson were cagey about details, be it starting lineup info or schematics. Both cited playing to their strengths, player their games and maintaining focus. Atkinson harped on how the best teams are “player led” and cited his job as the collaborative type. Rajakovic dropped a gem about how as a society we want less emotion, and he wants more. He just wants the channeled type of emotion. He wants it corralled to its proper place.
Fog rolled around everyone in the building, cheers boomed, dissent was felt. The Cavs fans started corralling emotion immediately as the Raptors got boo’d at every possible junction, especially during their intro accompanied by “The Imperial Death March”. “In the Air Tonight” By Phil Collins cast an ominous aura over the building. Super cuts of physical plays from the Cavaliers played in slow motion under it. An animated sequence of a cavalier, a sword, stabbing through the Raptors logo played to close it off and set the scene for everything to come.
The caginess from perhaps an hour before fell away as both teams were forced to reveal their starting lineups. The Cavaliers opted for Dean Wade at the 3, and a lineup that has put up one of the best defensive ratings in all of basketball. The Raptors opted for Jamal Shead to replace the injured Immanuel Quickley. A lineup of Shead-RJ Barrett-Brandon Ingram-Scottie Barnes-Jakob Poeltl would be launching the Raptors back into the postseason for the first time in years – that lineup had posted a -50 net rating across 41 minutes of play this season.
While many thought Ja’Kobe Walter was the obvious fill in player, Coach Darko’s first move was a bit of a changeup. Shead’s first mark was Donovan Mitchell. RJ Barrett was tasked with James Harden. Scottie Barnes with Evan Mobley.
The early returns on inflection points? Barnes hit his first three triples against Mobley’s granted space. Harden unraveled the Raptors defense nearly every time he touched the ball. Barrett was getting stuck on screens, Jakob Poeltl wasn’t very dynamic stepping up in space (not even in a switch, just support) and the pick n’ roll possessions worked like a charm to churn out paint touches and paint buckets for the Cavaliers. The Raptors will need other counters over the course of this series, otherwise they’ll never be able to defend Harden the way they need to.
“I don’t think it can be one thing.” Darko said of matching up with Harden before the game. “He’s seen it all. He’s had teams sending him to the rim every time, guarding him from the side. He’s seen teams trapping and blitzing his pick n’ rolls. He’s seen the levels of physicality. He has a lot of experience in those situations. He’s a high level player, one of the greatest scorers to ever play the game, so I don’t think it can be one thing. We don’t want to be a team that’s just committed to one thing. We want to be showing different coverages, different matchups, different coverages to slow him down. The more we keep him guessing, the better it is for us.”
The Raptors first attempt at a different coverage featured a Sandro Mamukelashvili switch and that oh so patented Harden step back triple. In the early going, it was Harden dragging the Cavaliers offense along, even as they missed jumpers, and even as the Raptors managed to create turnovers.
On the other side of things, the Raptors were making damn near everything. Prove em’ threes, slick little back cuts, some iso creation from Brandon Ingram – they were moving the chains as they jumped out to 31 first quarter points, a great number for this offense, but they were still down 4 heading into the second quarter.
They had found a way on offense, mostly through improved shot making, but they hadn’t solved a single thing on defense yet. Both Harden & Mitchell created easy offense. The Cavs bigs found easy baskets. Lots of work ahead for the Raptors.
One of the first, out of the box adjustments the Raptors opted for was to put AJ Lawson into the game. The Raptors were falling victim to dribble penetration, and despite Lawson being a back end of the bench player, he’s one of the better containment guards on the team. His presence was actually quite helpful to start the second quarter as both teams entered a bit of a deadlock offensively. A lot of east-west movement on both sides of the floor until Harden checked back into the game and started creating a more north-south dynamic for the Cavaliers. He even managed to lull DPOY hopeful, Barnes, into one of his step back triples.
Truthfully, the Raptors 7-point deficit was a good spot for how the game had played out. They were getting shredded to bits and pieces by the Cavs backcourt and had somehow stayed in punching distance by putting up an 8-15 performance from downtown in the first half – led by Barnes & Shead who had combined for 18 points from beyond the arc. The Poeltl problem loomed larger than anything else in the first half. The Raptors hadn’t figured out how to utilize him offensively against the Cavs gargantuan front court, and they couldn’t hide him on defense. A rock and a hard place.
The Raptors were getting mashed in the paint. At halftime nearly half of the Cavs shots were coming at the rim, meanwhile the Raptors were registering half of their shots from the mid-range, and less than 20% at the rim. Ingram, Barnes, Shead – they’d all done a great job hitting their jumpers, but there was very little in the way of consistent creation downhill for the Raptors as a whole. Maybe the most illuminating stat was that Shead had only tallied one assist. This continued with the beginning of the third quarter (which is usually great for the Raptors) as the Cavs started out on a 6-0 run. Toronto was trying to initiate through Poeltl’s elbow touches, but the Cavs were helping off of him to such a degree that everything was gummed up beyond belief. If the Raptors want to take advantage of that, they’ll need someone willing and able to use that extra space for off the dribble shooting.
In most cases, teams don’t lose the thread all at once. It’s a slow, smattering of misses that pile up against a smattering of makes from the other team. However, spiritually, it did feel like the first “prove it” triple that Barnes missed really did coincide with the death of the Raptors in this one. Not that it was Barnes’ shooting that tanked the team, but rather that yet another possession fell into his hands hoping to be rescued by his suddenly elite shooting. When it didn’t go down, the Raptors started to look around for other options, finding very little.
On the other side, the Cavs were finding a lot. Harden was bending the Raptors out of sorts, as was Mitchell, but midway through the third quarter their leading scorer was Max Strus, who was making a killing (19 points, 7-8 shooting) working off of the attention his stars were commanding. The offensive environment was a cozy one for so many of the Cavaliers.
The Raptors had failed to change outcomes with physicality or gumption. In fact, they hadn’t changed the game with pace either, as fast break points weren’t even a part of this game. Near the end of the third quarter the Raptors had been in transition on less than 5% of their possessions. A paltry amount of pace. They hadn’t posted a number below 9% all season, and only dropped below 10% twice. The Cavs had beaten the Raptors into a slow stupor.
What’s clear after one game is that the Raptors have to be able to turn more of Harden’s shot diet into floaters. It’s scary to see Harden in the paint, but seeing as the Raptors have no avenue to keeping Harden from the paint outright, insulating him into floater territory is far better than allowing the playmaking that comes out of it. In general, the Raptors did a poor job of keeping anyone out of the paint. Too many runways.
They have to fundamentally change how these games go in terms of the pace and the battle for the paint. The Cavaliers dominated the important stuff by some measure in this one.
Lots of work left.
Have a blessed day.
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