Cavs Vs. Raptors Game 1: 5 Things We Learned

The Cleveland Cavaliers were once again destructive last night in the NBA Playoffs.

The Cavs proved that they weren’t rusty after the long layoff. Kyrie Irving and LeBron James led the way as the Cavs blew out the Toronto Raptors 115 to 84. Here’s what we learned from game one.

1. LeBron James is playing like someone deserving of a first place MVP vote.

We all know that Steph Curry was the unanimous MVP this season. However, you can make a strong argument that LeBron was certainly deserving of at least one first place vote. No one in the league has as much of an impact on the outcome of his team’s games as much as James does.

We’ve seen recently that while James acknowledges that Curry is deserving of being the MVP, but he appears to be jealous of the attention that Curry is getting. LeBron has been the undisputed best player in the league for almost a decade, but the emergence of Curry is beginning to take that title away. Even Kyle Lowry insinuated that James isn’t the best player anymore.

In game one, James looked like he was the best player in the world. In just over 28 minutes of play, LeBron put up 24 points on 11 of 13 shooting. He was getting to the rim seemingly whenever he wanted. This was arguably his most dominant game of the postseason so far even though he didn’t play the fourth quarter. We’ll see if this new found motivation continues to elevate LeBron’s game to another level.

2. The Raptors need more out of Kyle Lowry and Demar DeRozan if they plan on staying in this series.

The Raptors relied on their tremendous backcourt to close out the Heat, and they’ll need to continue to rely on them if they want to make this a series. Lowry and DeRozan didn’t look like the same players they were that closed out Miami.

DeRozan had a respectable 18 points and 5 assists in the loss. While those are pretty good numbers, his team suffered with him on the floor. He finished the game as a minus 22. Lowry did not put up respectable numbers. He finished with only 8 points on 4 of 14 shooting including 0 of 7 from deep. Toronto needs their best players to combine for more than 26 points. Especially when they’re playing a team that has a pairing of LeBron and Kyrie who are capable of putting up 50 combined points on any given night.

3. Maybe the Hawks had the right defensive strategy.

Many were critical of the way Atlanta packed the paint last series. The Hawks’ strategy was to close down the driving lanes and make Cleveland’s outside shooting win the game for them. Unfortunately for Atlanta, the strategy didn’t work and the Cavs had a record-breaking performance from behind the arc.

In Game 1 the Raptors tried the opposite approach. They did not pack the paint, but instead chose to cover the Cavs’ shooters. That strategy allows Irving and James to drive to the basket with little or not help defense.

The Cavs exploited that strategy by putting up 56 points in the paint. Kyrie, LeBron, and others were able to get to the basket at will.

Deciding how to play the Cavs defensively is tough because they have so many ways to beat their opponent. However, if forced to chose between the two I’d most likely chose to make the Cavs’ sharpshooters beat them. You can’t allow Kyrie and LeBron to get to the basket that easily and expect to stay in the series. We’ll see what adjustments are made before game 2.

4. Kyrie Irving can lead the team and scoring, and have a bigger impact on defense.

Kyrie picked up in game 1 right where he left off last series. He finished with a game-high 27 points on 11 of 17 shooting. While his scoring was impressive, his defense was even more.

Irving proved once again that he can play great defense when he wants. He shut down Lowry on defense. Kyrie also added 2 block and 2 steals.

Kyrie’s defense may be a key this series considering how much the Raptors rely on Lowry offensively. Guarding Lowry is a good test for Irving considering he might have to guard either Russell Westbrook or Curry next in the Finals.

We’ll see if Kyrie can keep up the defensive pressure all series. He’s been great defensively for stretches, but he’s rarely ever dominated a game on both sides of the ball like he did in game 1.

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5. The Cavs bench unit with LeBron can go on a 22 to 4 run.

Coach Lue’s decision to start the second quarter with four bench guys and LeBron broke the will of Toronto. The combination of Iman Shumpert, Matthew Dellavedova, Channing Frye, and Richard Jefferson overpowered the Raptors’ second unit.

This lineup has been so successful because it forces LeBron to be the hero. He is forced to be the primary ballhandler with this unit and it has turned out to be a disaster for opposing defenses.

It is also refreshing to see the Cavs being able to have a stable 9 man rotation. That is arguably the biggest difference from last year’s team to this year’s team.

While the Cavaliers dominated the game 1, you can’t expect the Raptors to play this bad every night. We’ll see how Toronto responds in game 2 on Thursday night.