The Cleveland Cavaliers were just handed a golden opportunity to start the NBA playoffs, as the Toronto Raptors announced that starting point guard Immanuel Quickley will miss Game 1 due to injury.
The Cavaliers will take any advantage that they can get. They enter the postseason with plenty of pressure after three-straight disappointing finishes in the postseason, including an upset to the 4-seed Indiana Pacers last year in just five games. They have to perform better this time around or changes will be coming -- including the possibility of trading Donovan Mitchell.
What a team under pressure doesn't need is everyone and their mother blowing smoke up their shorts. Every analyst who doesn't spell color with a "u" is predicting that Cleveland will win and win easily against the Raptors. If they were to lose Game 1 at home, the lights would grow brighter and the pressure would intensify.
Immanuel Quickley has been ruled out
That makes the latest news ahead of the tipoff of Game 1 welcome indeed. Raptors starting point guard Immanuel Quickley has been officially ruled out with a hamstring injury that had him questionable all week. For a muscle injury to be bad enough for him to miss the game, it's unlikely he will be at 100 percent for quite some time - potentially not for the entire series.
Finding safe places for both James Harden and Donovan Mitchell to exist on defense is always a challenge - less of a challenge than when Darius Garland was still on the team, but certainly not an easy one. Taking Quickley, the team's best two-way guard, out of the lineup should have Cleveland coaches breathing a sigh of relief.
Quickley will likely be replaced in the starting lineup by backup point guard Jamal Shead, a defensive pest whose offensive game is extremely limited. He is their version of Isaac Okoro, a player the Cavaliers eventually had to move because of those offensive limitations. That will help the Cavs on defensive tremendously.
The Raptors are now easier to defeat
The Raptors are still stocked with talented players, from Evan Mobley's arch-nemesis Scottie Barnes to undeserving All-Star Brandon Ingram to old New York Knicks foe RJ Barrett. They have some interesting pieces coming off the bench. Without Quickley, however, their ceiling is capped -- and it's remarkably close to the Cavaliers' floor.
They can now go out and stomp the Raptors in Game 1, setting the tone and notching that all-important first win onto their belts. Go up 2-0, and they fly to Canada in a dominant position. And more importantly, with some of that pressure easing off.
Quickley is the only Raptors player listed on the injury report, while the Cavaliers have a clean bill of health heading into the series. Game 1 is now there for the taking -- all Cleveland has to do is close their first.
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