Cleveland shares the load
Valanciunas’s big night cancelled out by the Cavs’ supporting cast
Late in the first half of Tuesday night’s 113-112 overtime win by the Cavaliers over the Raptors, Cavs star LeBron James fired a no-look pass from the top of the key to Jordan Clarkson, who in turn zipped a no-look pass to J.R. Smith, who buried a threepointer from the corner to cut the Raptors’ lead to a single point.
The play illustrated the Cavs’ new-found commitment to exploring offensive options beyond James and by halftime Smith and reserve forward Jeff Green had outscored him.
Toronto, meanwhile, countered Cleveland’s renewed offensive balance with a monster night from centre Jonas Valanciunas, who ended regulation time with 21 points and a gamehigh 20 rebounds.
That stat line made him the first Raptor to record at least 15 points and 15 rebounds in a playoff game and underscored a central theme in this Eastern Conference semifinal series.
Both clubs entered Tuesday’s series opener knowing that if their stars performed, winning would hinge on which club’s complementary players performed best.
The Cavs’ first-round victory over Indiana saw James average a team-high 34.4 points per game, with second-leading scorer Kevin Love contributing 11.4.
That series marked just the fourth time in NBA playoff history that a team’s leading scorer averaged at least three times as many points as its second-leading scorer, and only the second time a team had ridden such unbalanced offence to a series victory. The previous time came in 1988, when Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls scored a first-round victory in a best-offive series against Cleveland.
But both teams entered Tuesday knowing the Cavs would need more evenly distributed scoring to beat a deep Raptors team in the conference semifinal. “Our second unit knows. We’ve talked about it the last two days,” said Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue before Tuesday’s game. “They have to be good.”
Before Tuesday’s game, Raptors head coach Dwane Casey acknowledged that James would likely pile up points, even as the Raptors employed myriad tactics to keep him off balance. But he also pointed out that the Raptors couldn’t simply gang up on James and force other Cavs to try to win the game. Even though this year’s edition of the Cavaliers is generally viewed as a class below last year’s squad, Casey said the team retains enough skill and savvy to topple an overconfident foe.
“They have a lot of weapons out there,” Casey said. “If you choose your poison the wrong way, it can hurt you … we’ll have to use every tool in our tool box.”
Through three quarters, Kyle Korver had racked up 16 points, as James totalled 19 and Smith 14.
During Cleveland’s sevengame first-round series the 33year-old James accounted for 36.3 per cent of his team’s points.
With just two days between the end of a hard-fought opening round and the start of a stiff challenge against the Raptors and their Bench Mob, the Cavs needed a boost from their own supporting players.