CLEVELAND — So, here the Toronto Raptors are. Back at Quicken Loans Arena in humble Cleveland, the location of the most seminal moments for the franchise over the last few seasons.
The arena where Toronto just couldn’t come up with a win in three tries during the 2016 Eastern Conference Finals, the closest the Raptors have ever come to playing for a championship. Where LeBron James and the Cavaliers steamrolled — and borderline disrespected — the Raptors in the second round of the 2017 playoffs with a pair of blowouts. Where Toronto lost a little less than two weeks ago, giving Cleveland everything it had, scoring 79 points before halftime, only for it to not be enough, as James had a vintage night and sealed a 132-129 victory with a 14-point fourth quarter.
Yes, a lot’s happened in Cleveland. And make no mistake — the game the Raptors will contest with the Cavaliers Tuesday night won’t be pivotal. If Toronto loses, there won’t be much difference in the grand scheme of things. But for the Raptors, a first-place team that has lost four of its last seven, and 9 of its last 10 in Cleveland, a win would be awfully nice.
A win would also give the Raptors something positive to build on as they head home for a decidedly more influential game Wednesday night against the Boston Celtics — a clash that will go a long way to determining which team finishes first in the East (see Dave Zarum’s excellent breakdown for a detailed look at the many scenarios in play).
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If you’re the Raptors, you’d much rather enter that game on a high note instead of facing the possibility of losing three straight to two of the best teams in the conference. To that end, Tuesday night’s game in Cleveland carries some significance. Not that Raptors head coach Dwane Casey is ever going to admit it.
“All games are equal to me. I said that at the beginning of the year, still saying it now,” he said as the Raptors gathered for shootaround. “We understand that we’re in a playoff race for home court. It’s not like we’re fighting to get into the playoffs, that’s the difference.
“Our goal is still to have home court advantage throughout the playoffs. But to that point, does it make or break our season? No.”
The good news is everybody’s healthy and available as of Tuesday morning. That includes Kyle Lowry, who was in San Antonio Monday night watching his Villanova Wildcats win a second NCAA Championship in the last three years.
As per Lowry’s stated rules of engagement on days following his alma mater’s national championships, the Raptors point guard fielded only Villanova-themed questions Tuesday. And when asked anything otherwise, such as how the Raptors could avoid another shootout with the Cavaliers, he provided only Villanova-themed responses.
“You know, like the way Villanova does it,” Lowry said, 2018 National Championship hat pulled down over his forehead. “They shoot a lot of threes and they play defence. So, we’re just going to go with the Villanova concept of playing hard basketball. You know, Villanova basketball for 48 minutes.”
Some would argue that’s more of a modern basketball concept than Villanova specific, but point taken. The Wildcats hit 10 of the 27 threes they shot Tuesday night. The Raptors would like to ideally be attempting 30 or more. But after a dreadful shooting night Saturday in Boston, in which the Raptors were 8-of-35 from beyond the arc including a combined 2-of-15 from Lowry and CJ Miles, going 10-of-27 Tuesday against Cleveland would probably look pretty good.
“I think the entire league is three-point conscious — getting as many threes up as you can,” Casey said. “[The Cavaliers] do it in a different way than we do. They go through one guy — James, LeBron. Quarterbacking. We’ve got to do a better job of understanding what they’re trying to do with him with the ball.”
Which is where the other part of Lowry’s formula comes into play. Villanova played terrific perimeter defence against Michigan on Monday, holding the Wolverines to 3-of-23 shooting from range. The Raptors, meanwhile, let Cleveland rain threes when they last played two weeks ago, watching the Cavaliers shoot 15-of-24.
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And when Casey says much of that goes through James, he doesn’t mean the actual shooting. James hit just one three-pointer that night, but he did throw out 17 assists with not a single turnover, as he frequently drove, drew help, and kicked out the kind of passes only he can make to open teammates beyond the arc.
There’s only so much of that you can contain. James is one of the best in the world at it. And if you focus too much on one area, he exploits another. But Casey sees plenty of room for improvement.
“We’ve got to do a better job of understanding what they’re trying to do with him with the ball. Our weak side defence has to be alert and make better decisions,” Casey said. “It was a one possession game. And we had probably 10 situations where we shot ourselves in the foot. So, we can do better. If we cut that in half, that’s the most important thing.”
We’ll see how it plays out. If one thing’s certain, Lowry will be in a good mood. He should be considering the 10-or-so months he’s having. A $100-million contract signed in July, a first-place team through early April and another Villanova championship Monday night.
“Big year, yeah,” Lowry said. “I’m hoping we can make it bigger.”
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