Five things to watch in the series,
Five things to watch in the Eastern Conference finals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Toronto Raptors: A THREE-FOR-ALL Cleveland is the postseason’s best three-point shooting team, and Toronto needs to limit those attempts and makes or it will be a short series. The Cavaliers have made 16.8 threes per game, attempted 36.3 per game and have made 46.2% — all playoff bests — and set a playoff record for threes in a game (25) and in a four-game series (77) vs. the Atlanta Hawks.
The Cavs have so many scorers the defense is scrambling to keep up with shooters at the threepoint line. From that distance, J.R. Smith has made 50.8%, Channing Frye 57.1%, Kyrie Irving 53.8%, Kevin Love 44.4% and Iman Shumpert 46.2%.
“We’ve got to choose — pick our poison,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. “They’re a lethal team. They can put a team on the floor one through five that can stretch you out and shoot the three. Our work is cut out for us to take away the three ball.”
The game within the game: limiting Cleveland’s transition threes and keeping its paint touches from turning into open threes. Casey hopes he doesn’t need to call poison control often. RAPTORS’ BACKCOURT Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan were fantastic against the Miami Heat in Game 7 on Sunday. But their playoffs have been marked by offensive struggles — neither is shooting better than 37% from the field in 14 games.
The Raptors not only need the kind of scoring they got from Lowry and DeRozan in Game 7 against the Heat (35 and 28 points, respectively), they also need efficient offense.
“Hopefully, they can keep that momentum going on the offensive end and don’t forget about the defensive end,” Casey said.
Cleveland’s offense has been so good it’s easy to overlook some of its defensive shortcomings. Toronto will try to take advantage and give Cleveland’s backcourt its biggest defensive challenge. CLEVELAND’S BIG THREE It was expected that LeBron James, Irving and Love would reincarnate immediately what James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh had in Miami. Well, that takes time, and that time is now. Irving is averaging 24.4 points and 5.5 assists; James 23.5 points, 8.8 rebounds and 7.3 assists and Love 18.9 points and 12.5 rebounds (a double-double in every playoff game).
It’s the best they’ve played since they got together in Cleveland, and when they are making shots inside or out, it stresses the defense and creates opportunities for Smith, Frye, Shumpert, Matthew Dellavedova and Tristan Thompson.
Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue also has found rotations with two of those three or even just one of the three on the court, allowing each to have the offensive spotlight at different times. LEBRON STOPPER? Go back to the 2011 Finals when the Dallas Mavericks beat Miami and they limited James. Casey was the defensive mastermind for the Mavericks as an assistant for Rick Carlisle, and he parlayed that into this job that offseason.
Casey has another outstanding defensive mind on his bench in assistant Andy Greer, and those two will try to find ways to cut off James’ opportunities. Forward DeMarre Carroll will guard James, and he will need help.
“The respect that I know I have for him and our staff has for him is unprecedented,” Casey said. IMPRESSIVE COACHING At the start of the playoffs, it wasn’t a dig at Lue to wonder who he could outcoach with the Detroit Pistons’ Stan Van Gundy in the first round, Atlanta’s Mike Budenholzer in the second round and now Casey.
With 41 regular-season games and eight playoff games on his head coaching résumé, Lue squashed that concern. His ingame management has been fantastic, finding the right lineups, running effective out-of-bounds plays and calling timeouts at the perfect time.
Lue deserves credit for getting the Cavs to trust one another and play a style conducive to playoff success.
“When we’re at our best is when the ball’s moving (and) when we’re playing with pace,” he said. “The guys finally bought into it and understand if we play that way it’s fun for everyone to play that way.”