The Raptors are doubling down on their strengths

As the Toronto Raptors prepared for Game 5 in Cleveland on Wednesday night – after rumbling to consecutive uncanny wins in Games 3 and 4 – I was rumbling down Lakeshore Boulevard in a U-Haul filled with all my earthly possessions.  

Driving the 15-foot monstrosity seemed to be a daunting proposition at first. I’d never driven a vehicle so large. The first couple hundred meters moved at a snail’s pace. This thing is too big for the lane. I’m going to hit everything. 

But before long I was cruising without a care, alternating between blaring the best Raptors analysis quadrumvirate known to man, and the Jays game on the radio. Just a man, his rig, and the road.  

The Raptors’ season, and first-round playoff series, hasn’t been so different.  

Scottie Barnes and Collin Murray-Boyles – Toronto’s only two top-10 picks in the last nine seasons – might seem ill-fitting at first blush. Modern NBA offence can feel so dependent on shooting and spacing. Both have shown glimpses of floor-stretching this season, Murray-Boyles to start the season and Barnes in the playoffs, but neither has proven they can shoot the ball well for a reliable sample.  

This isn’t going to work. Two non-shooting frontcourt players can’t effectively share the floor; they’ll be too cramped in the halfcourt. 

If those doubts hadn’t been silenced already, the Raptors’ first-round series against the Cavs have put them to bed.  

When Barnes and Murray-Boyles share the floor, they own it. The open space between them and opposing offensive threats is traversed in a blink. Those who stand in their way – of a bucket, a board, of ownership of that orange ball – are pushed and pried out of the way with superior strength.  

Barnes’ floor coverage and playmaking already had the promise of a top defender in the world, and that’s beginning to come to fruition this season with a fifth-place finish in Defensive Player of the Year voting. Murray-Boyles provides similar upside with his versatility, preternatural hands, and brutish strength. Rather than trying to traditionally balance their roster, the Raptors have achieved unique success by doubling down on their strengths.  

When Jakob Poeltl’s back gave out for an extended stretch in the middle of the season, the necessity of playing ‘CMB’ at the five mothered the invention of one of the Raptors’ best two-man lineups, both defensively and overall.  

Opposing teams had a 51.1 effective field goal percentage and shot only 62.2 percent at the rim when Barnes and Murray-Boyles manned the floor, 94th and 90th percentile marks, respectively. Toronto was plus-7.4 points per 100 possessions better when using lineups that included the two, primarily powered by their 92.1 points per 100 first-shot halfcourt plays allowed, which ranked in the 96th percentile. The only team’s defence that put up a better mark in the NBA was the otherworldly Oklahoma City Thunder.  

And the pairing’s defensive success has only been underscored (highlighted and written in big bold letters with a bunch of exclamation marks) in the playoffs. Playing Murray-Boyles alongside Barnes, and in place of Poeltl – whose slow feet have mostly been shredded in pick n’ roll coverage to the point they now have him guarding Evan Mobley, Cleveland’s less-favoured screening option – has been instrumental to Toronto finding success. Their ability to enact the switch-to-blitz ball screen coverage that neutered Cleveland’s otherwise potent offence through Games 3 and 4 is singular. Other teams simply don’t have one player with their strength, length, and fast-paced ground coverage, let alone two of them. 

Toronto’s bash brothers have manhandled the Cavaliers’ fearsome backcourt on blitzes, while still having the footspeed to recover to their initial check. Boulders tumbling down the hill to crush Cleveland’s advantages. Their execution of this coverage has driven Cleveland into more awkward, late-clock attempts than anyone else on the roster, and Cleveland has ended up with the fifth-slowest offence in the playoffs to this point. (The Raptors, conversely, are averaging the second-shortest length of time per offensive possession.)

After Game 2, Joe Wolfond predicted that the Cavaliers’ unsustainable 65 percent shooting in the final four seconds of the clock would come back to earth, and he was right. It’s down to 46 percent over the last three games. And Barnes and Murray-Boyles’ helter-skelter cadence on defence is at the heart of that.  

Barnes and Murray-Boyles have provided proof of concept that their brand of basketball can shift the tactics at play in a series and drive playoff success. They’ve reaffirmed their place as centerpieces on a burgeoning, young team. And for that reason, win or lose in Game 6, or Game 7, this series is already a success for the Raptors.  

Still, they’re surely hungry for more, playing with house money now after hitting the jackpot with the No. 9 pick.  

I luckily didn’t hit anything with the truck while moving. But the Raptors’ two brawny forwards have been putting the shoulder down and trucking any Cavalier that gets in their way, including Mobley and Jarrett Allen, emboldening their resolve to further crash and bash Cleveland’s seemingly more talented roster down to a nub. That is until injuries and attrition reared their ugly heads, particularly in the case of Scottie Barnes, flipping the Raptors back into a perilous position.  

But what Barnes, CMB and co. have achieved through grind-it-out hoops and unique defensive capabilities proves there isn’t just one formula for success, aside from having good basketball players.  

The Raptors have two that are world beaters on defence, and are building towards something intriguing and funky. It’s not heliocentrism, or the five-out 3-point barrage of the 2024 Celtics, or the frenetic pace and hornets’ nest defence of the ‘25 Pacers or Thunder. (Though there are elements of those two teams at play.) It’s something different.  

Like a new place to live. Different than my move, the Barnes and Murray-Boyles vehicle that’s taking us all there is smashing into everything in sight.  

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