We have a fun Sunday as there are four NBA games tipping off today. From 1 p.m. ET until we all lay our heads down to sleep, we are going to have hoops available for us to watch. Not the regular-season garbage, we are getting playoff basketball, the best of basketball. It starts with action between the Cavs and Raptors, who are in a seven-game set with Cleveland up 2-1.
Cleveland had a decent year, winning 52 games, but the Cavs finally tweaked the team that turned in success from the past two years. They traded away Darius Garland and turned him into James Harden. This team also has Dennis Schroder coming off the bench instead of Lonzo Ball. I don’t see much depth outside of him on the court. As the playoffs get deeper, the benches don’t matter quite as much.
The Cavs are strong at four of the five starting positions. They looked great in the first two games of the playoffs. In the first two games, the Cavaliers won both of them over the Raptors by at least 10 points. In Game 3, Cleveland was blitzed by the Raptors and lost by 22. The issues were both a poor shooting night from Cleveland and a really good one from Toronto. It also didn’t help that the Cavs had 22 turnovers.
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Toronto was a surprise team this year. Most expected them to battle for a Play-In spot and probably struggle to even get that. However, things clicked for the team, and they turned in a 46-36 record. They were really good behind a combination of cast-offs and a really good drafted player, Scottie Barnes. Those players from other teams, Immanuel Quickley, Brandon Ingram, RJ Barrett and Jakob Poeltl (though he was drafted by the Raptors, went to the Spurs, and came back), have made this team competitive.
In the first two games, they didn’t really look ready for the postseason. However, the team looked great in Game 3. This was a bit of a coming-out party for them, but it might’ve also just been an anomaly. They shot 57% from the field and 61% from three. I just don’t see that happening again. One area they struggled with was from the free-throw line. They still were behind in rebounds, which is something they are likely to struggle with this entire series. Barrett and Barnes both put in 33 points for the team. Barnes was particularly great, adding 11 assists and five rebounds.
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You can’t count on the Raptors to shoot that well again. I won’t say the Cavs are going to shoot all that much better, but I do expect some improvement from them. The home court advantage is still on the side of Toronto, but after winning a game, the Cavs should lock in for this one. I think the best action is to take the Cavs -3.5.
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