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Key: Motivated to Move On
The Cavaliers aren’t thinking about making history on Sunday afternoon, but with a victory over the Raptors they will do so – trying to become the first team in NBA history to start off consecutive postseasons winning their first eight games.
On Friday night, the Wine and Gold improved to 3-0 against Toronto, beginning the fourth quarter on a 20-3 run and pulling away from a stunned Raptors team, who will try to stave off elimination in Game 4. Other than another dominant performance by LeBron James, the cast and storyline were different.
In Game 4, Kyle Korver and Iman Shumpert did in the Raptors down the stretch from different ends of the floor. Korver scored 11 of his 14 points in the second half, canning a pair of big triples late in the third. And Shumpert completely clamped down on DeMar DeRozan in the fourth quarter – holding him to a single point after dropping 36 through the first three.
The Cavaliers shot 79 percent from the floor in that final quarter and held the Raptors to 38 percent. Toronto didn’t make its first three-pointer until late in the third quarter and were outrebounded by 24 boards.
Including their four-game First Round sweep of the Pacers, the Cavaliers have gone on to sweep all eight teams that they’ve led 3-0 in a series.
Key: Defending DeMar
As the Playoffs have progressed, Coach Lue has found perfect harmony at his shooting guard spot – with Iman Shumpert, J.R. Smith and Kyle Korver each finding and excelling at their respective roles. Friday night was a perfect illustration of that.
J.R. Smith had a solid shooting night, going 3-of-5 from long-range, but he was limited to just 17 minutes of action after getting in foul trouble trying to stick with an extra-aggressive DeMar DeRozan.
When Swish was forced to take a seat, Shump took over in the fourth, blanketing DeRozan, holding him to two field goal attempts and single free throw.
The third member of T. Lue’s 2-guard trifecta – Korver – had his best shooting night of the 2017 Playoffs, going 5-of-7 from the floor, including 4-of-6 from beyond the arc. His two bombs before the end of the third and first one of the fourth quarter keyed Cleveland’s fourth-quarter route.
With Kyle Lowry on the shelf with a sprained left ankle, DeRozan was forced to do almost all the heavy lifting on Friday – and he was spectacular for three quarters. The Raptors will need another monster game from the East’s second leading scorer – who’s averaging a team-best 20.3 points per – on Sunday afternoon if they have any chance to stave off the sweep.
Key: King of the Road
Just to illustrate how utterly dominant LeBron James has been through the first three games of the Eastern Conference Semis, consider that DeMar DeRozan is leading the Raptors in scoring at 20.3 ppg (see Key 2) and that is the exact scoring average for LeBron in the second half of the first three games of the series.
Cleveland’s four-time MVP – who has scored double-figure points in two separate quarters in each of the first three games – scored 13 of his 35 points in the fourth quarter, finishing 9-of-16 from the floor overall, including 2-of-4 from deep and 15-of-16 from the stripe.
In topping the 30-point mark for the sixth time in seven Playoff games, the four-time MVP added eight boards, a game-high seven assists and a steal. Dwane Casey has thrown everything but the proverbial kitchen sink at James for the past two postseasons with negative results.
With Friday’s win, James has now won at least one road game in 28 straight series, and he’ll be looking to turn the lights out on Toronto on Sunday afternoon.
Key: Guarded Optimism
The way the Cavaliers are playing as a team right now, a lot of things have to go wrong for a team to beat them. The Cavaliers still haven’t played their best in the Semis, and they’ve still manhandled a team that finished with the exact same regular season record.
Kyrie Irving is a good example.
The four-time All-Star is shooting 36 percent from the floor in the series, including 37 percent from long-range. But Irving is still averaging 8.3 assists through the first three games and the Wine and Gold are +59 with him on the floor. What the Raptors have to be wondering is: when will Irving snap out of his shooting funk and how to slow him down with an injured Kyle Lowry – if he’s able to go on Sunday afternoon?
By the same token, Deron Williams has been outstanding in relief through the entire postseason, keeping the team in rhythm and maintaining (or increasing) the lead without posting huge numbers. Lowry didn’t get the start on Friday and didn’t see action – despite the team saying he might at some point.
Cory Joseph, who finished with 18 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter of Game 2, struggled mightily in his first start of the Playoffs, finishing with four points on 2-for-12 shooting in 33 minutes of work.
Key: Middle Men
The way the Cavaliers have decided to defend the Raptors has been no secret: they intend to stop or slow down DeMar DeRozan, even if it means sacrificing some attention to the other Raptors.
The beneficiary of this strategy for Toronto so far has been Jonas Valanciunas, who was back in the starting lineup on Friday night and was once again one of their most dependable offensive weapons.
The sixth-year center from Lithuania has been in and out of the starting lineup throughout the Playoffs for Toronto, but he’s been good against Cleveland in either role over the last two games – averaging 21.0 points on .783 shooting.
On Friday night, he led Toronto with eight boards, but he could have used some help as the combination of Tristan Thompson (12 boards) and Kevin Love (13) equaled the Raptors’ combined total of 25 rebounds in Game 3.
Tristan, back in his hometown for the second straight postseason, has been outstanding on the boards and the defensive end so far – grabbing double-digit rebounds in six of Cleveland’s first seven games, with 36 of his 79 boards coming off the offensive glass.
As much as the blue-collar big likes the land of hockey and Tim Horton’s, he’ll be looking to close out the squad he grew up rooting for on Sunday afternoon.