Everything Round 2: Toronto Raptors vs Cleveland Cavaliers

[octothorp]

I do think that if James is going to play 42 minutes, you need to make him work that whole time he's on the court. So if he does end up guarding Carroll or Tucker or Patterson, you need to run them through screens to generate corner 3 looks and be serious about taking them pay if James lags on getting out (and obviously if he does hustle out then swing it around and attack from the other side).

[ebrian]

How's 538's "Hillary's got a 75% chance of the presidency" workin' out for ya?

Truth be told, I used to go to fivethirtyeight daily and eat up everything they had until Trump won. I honestly have not visited their site since election night.

I've got Cavs in 5. We have the Cavs right where we want them. We're a better team than we were last year, and built better to defeat the Cavs. That said I just did not like the way we handled ourselves against Milwaukee. I trusted the Raptors more last year even though this year's team is much better at least on paper.

[Bendit]

Yeah we can't afford to start Carroll imo. There's just too much at stake.

Another question is whether Jonas starts against TT or not. This is going to be a really interesting chess (checkers?) match.

Very true.

Here is a matchup piece from Bleacher. It isn't bad but they did consider Love better than Ibaka. Not if Serge is guarding him imo....but it would take him away from rim protection duties.

We have a shot....if the Cavs play as they have the end of the season.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2...-want-to-avoid

[A.I]

Very true.

Here is a matchup piece from Bleacher. It isn't bad but they did consider Love better than Ibaka. Not if Serge is guarding him imo....but it would take him away from rim protection duties.

We have a shot....if the Cavs play as they have the end of the season.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2...-want-to-avoid

I wouldn't mind starting Patterson and having him guard Love and Ibaka on TT.

Lowry, DD, Tucker, Patterson and Ibaka, would be a nice lineup, switch pick & rolls, Ibaka is there to protect the rim and so on. You'll also be able to keep TT off the defensive glass with Ibaka and Patterson stretching the floor.

But the problem will be JV off of the bench and he may have to guard Frye.

[Bendit]

I wouldn't mind starting Patterson and having him guard Love and Ibaka on TT.

Lowry, DD, Tucker, Patterson and Ibaka, would be a nice lineup, switch pick & rolls, Ibaka is there to protect the rim and so on. You'll also be able to keep TT off the defensive glass with Ibaka and Patterson stretching the floor.

But the problem will be JV off of the bench and he may have to guard Frye.

Casey shall have to be ready to make changes if the matchups are not working at any time. This is probably the board's biggest complaint of him....the in-game management issues. If the team just shoots well this would make things much easier obviously.

[S.R.]

Truth be told, I used to go to fivethirtyeight daily and eat up everything they had until Trump won. I honestly have not visited their site since election night.

I've got Cavs in 5. We have the Cavs right where we want them. We're a better team than we were last year, and built better to defeat the Cavs. That said I just did not like the way we handled ourselves against Milwaukee. I trusted the Raptors more last year even though this year's team is much better at least on paper.

Overall this year's first round went better than the first two rounds last year.

[TheWaterboy]

I really don't know what to predict at this point. The Cavs defended the Pacers poorly, and the Pacers defended the Cavs poorly. Short of falling into our worst habits, we should be able to score at will on the Cavs if they defend us like they defended against the pacers (and in the twenty-odd games at the end of the season. Conversely, if we put up a spirited defensive effort against the Cavs consistently, we should be able to hold the score down to a level where we can outscore them most of the time. It feels like we should be in a good position to upset the Cavs... but at the same time, it feels like the Cavs have a talent level we can't quite match.

I don't know what to think. I guess I need to see if the Raps wind up stealing at least one of the two games in Cleveland before I will feel comfortable believing we can knock off the Cavs in this series.

[A.I]

Casey shall have to be ready to make changes if the matchups are not working at any time. This is probably the board's biggest complaint of him....the in-game management issues. If the team just shoots well this would make things much easier obviously.

Agreed. Game 5 and Game 6 (before and after the meltdown) was probably the best basketball I've seen the team play under Casey. The ball was moving, every one was making their open shots and played solid defense. Hopefully it continues.

[The Great One]

Would the Raptors keep Norman Powell in the starting lineup or would they insert JV back in the starting lineup? this is one of the storylines that i'm keeping an eye on.

They gotta put JV back in the lineup right? if not, who's going to guard Love?

[Scraptor]

Would the Raptors keep Norman Powell in the starting lineup or would they insert JV back in the starting lineup? this is one of the storylines that i'm keeping an eye on.

They gotta put JV back in the lineup right? if not, who's going to guard Love?

JV is not a good matchup for Love at all. Patterson or Ibaka will guard Love, unless Casey goes small and puts someone like Tucker at the four.

JV's matchup, which he should win, would be against Tristan Thompson.

[JimiCliff]

Us armchair fans, we don't know nothing. Coach always knows best.

Here's the full Luis Scola endorsement of his former teammate Norm Powell. I think he's a fan. pic.twitter.com/dgSvkyR5k5

— Josh Lewenberg (@JLew1050) April 29, 2017

[ogi]

JV is not a good matchup for Love at all. Patterson or Ibaka will guard Love, unless Casey goes small and puts someone like Tucker at the four.

JV's matchup, which he should win, would be against Tristan Thompson.

I agree that jv should start but he has struggled with that TT matchup before. We need playoff jv to show up and kill it.

[psrs1]

Vegas has us 6.5 point underdogs.

[Scraptor]

We were 11 point dogs last year, so that's an improvement.

[The Great One]

JV is not a good matchup for Love at all. Patterson or Ibaka will guard Love, unless Casey goes small and puts someone like Tucker at the four.

JV's matchup, which he should win, would be against Tristan Thompson.

I never said put JV on Love. Terrible matchup for JV. If they start JV, then they should definitely put him on TT. Ibaka on Love. Carroll on LJ. DeRozan on JR. Lowry on Irving.