Gameday: Cavaliers at Raptors, April 23rd

The Toronto Raptors will be hosting the Cleveland Cavaliers at home tonight for game 3 of their series. This will be Toronto’s first home playoff game since 2022 and hopefully they can pick up the win and get back into this series. There has been plenty of talks surrounding what will be done regarding Jakob Poeltl and tonight we may see a change to the starting lineup. At this point in the series, Toronto needs to try any and everything they can to get back into it, before it is too late.

Series 2-0 Cleveland

Raptors Outlook

A big headline out of game 2 was Poeltl’s lack of second half minutes in that contest. Poeltl has been targeted by Cleveland in the pick n’ roll and his lack of speed when guarding this action has led to one of two outcomes. Either the Cleveland ball handler gets the room for a runner or floater in the lane, or a lob gets thrown to Jarrett Allen or Evan Mobley. Poeltl just has not looked very playable during the series, and this was a question before the series.

What Toronto can do to mitigate this is insert Collin Murray-Boyles into the starting lineup. Inserting CMB into the starting lineup would provide Toronto with more speed and versatility on defense, and it would also help them on the glass as well. In his minutes during the series thus far, CMB has averaged 15.5 points per game and 5.5 rebounds as well, and he has shown that he is willing and able to get very physical with Cleveland’s bigs. CMB also adds more spacing than Poeltl does, which may aid Toronto’s offense as a whole.

The biggest change that Toronto needs is for Brandon Ingram to simply play better. He’s averaging an abysmal 12 points per game in this series, and even when the offense was planted toward him in game 2, he still could not get going. Without adequate scoring from Ingram tonight, Toronto’s chances of winning this game and potentially this series drop drastically.

Cavaliers Outlook

Cleveland’s backcourt duo has had their way with the Toronto Raptors offensively. Donovan Mitchell is averaging 31 points per game in this series, while James Harden is putting up 25 points per game and 7 assists per game as well. Both of these players have been attacking RJ Barrett seemingly at will, but really anyone who had stepped up to guard them has been made to look foolish. Even when they are guarded well, they still find a way to make the shot fall, during game 2 it felt like anything they threw up was somehow finding the bottom of the basket.

Cleveland will likely continue to attack with their star backcourt duo, and Toronto has to be prepared to provide some help on these possessions. In game 2 Toronto saw some success when they overloaded toward Harden or Mitchell, especially when they helped off of middling shooters such as Dennis Schroeder, so this could be a strategy they look to to help them contain Cleveland better.

Game Info

Tip-Off: 8:00 p.m. ET

Television: Sportsnet

Venue: Scotiabank Arena

Starting Lineups (Projected)

Cleveland Cavaliers 

PG: James Harden

SG: Donovan Mitchell

SF:Dean Wade

PF: Evan Mobley 

C: Jarrett Allen

Toronto Raptors

PG: Jamal Shead

SG: RJ Barrett

SF: Brandon Ingram

PF: Scottie Barnes

C: Jakob Poeltl

Injury Report

Toronto Raptors

Immanuel Quickley (Hamstring) – Questionable

Ja’Kobe Walter (Illness) – Questionable

Cleveland Cavaliers

Thomas Bryant (Calf) – Questionable

Team	Spread	Money	Total
Toronto Raptors	+8.5 (–115)	+280	O 219.5 (-115)
Cleveland Cavaliers	-8.5 (-105)	-355	U 219.5 (-105)

Odds as of Apr.23rd, 12:00 a.m. ET

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