Raptors could turn to fouling LeBron
TORONTO — The Toronto Raptors still think they have a chance to compete with the Cleveland Cavaliers. They have some game plan tweaks coming to try to prove it.
Their chance of success will come soon enough — tonight’s Game 3 at Air Canada Centre (ESPN, WatchESPN, 8:30 ET) — but either way, what the Raptors throw at the Cavs might be of interest to the Oklahoma City Thunder and Golden State Warriors in the Finals.
The Cavs’ biggest weapon this postseason hasn’t been a single star or element, such as their 3-point shooting. It’s been the sudden and devastating development of their second unit.
That usually bland time of the game has actually been when the Cavs have inflicted the most damage and where the Raptors have been the most perplexed.
And it’s not just Toronto. Since the middle of the series with the Detroit Pistons, the Cavs’ second unit of LeBron James, Matthew Dellavedova, Iman Shumpert, Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye has outscored its opponents by a breathtaking 46 points per 100 possessions.
It’s been the most effective lineup in the postseason, including Stephen Curry and the Warriors’ so-called “Lineup of Death” with Draymond Green playing center.
Cavs coach Tyronn Lue never used it during the regular season, preferring to go with Kyrie Irving and the backups. When he switched to it in Game 2 against the Pistons, Detroit coach Stan Van Gundy actually mocked Lue about putting James in with the group. “That’s really smart coaching,” Van Gundy said. “It is. That’s really smart coaching, to put LeBron on the floor. I give him a lot of credit for that ‘adjustment,’ if that’s what you want to call it.”
No one is laughing anymore. Now Raptors coach Dwane Casey is trying to figure out a way to break it. “It’s on me to figure it out,” Casey said. “The matchups — Frye at the 5 and James at the 4 — is the issue. How do you do that? Bismack [Biyombo] does a great job of protecting the paint, but then he looks out and his matchup is out at the 3-point line. Channing is all over the place.”
The Raptors aren’t revealing what they have planned, but there are a few possibilities. One is to have Biyombo or Patrick Patterson, the backup center with Jonas Valanciunas injured, guard James.
With his outside shooting shaky this season, James has become a heavy interior shooter, and the farthest shot he’s made this series has been from 8 feet. This would essentially be a dare to James to shoot from outside.
The second would be to foul James as much as possible. While he’s been dominant as a passer and interior finisher in the series, James is just 11-of-24 from the foul line over the past three games dating to the Atlanta Hawks series.
“I’m not worried about it at all,” James said of the free throw slump. “I’m just going to be as aggressive as I was in Game 2 and Game 1, so if I get back to the free throw line, I’ll knock them down.”
The other potential Raptors move is to attack Irving. When James rests, Lue has been leaving Irving in to lead the scoring. He’s been playing fantastically, leading the Cavs by averaging 24.8 points in the playoffs and shooting 50 percent on both 2-pointers and 3-pointers.
But in Game 2, Irving slipped back into the ball-domination patterns that have sometimes limited the Cavs over the past two seasons. The Raptors might look to attack him more with double-teams, an effective tactic against him in the past.
“We’ve got to get the ball out of Kyrie’s hands,” DeMar DeRozan said. “We’ve got to be more aggressive with that.”
Will any of it be enough? The Raptors are going to try.
“We’re not quitting,” Casey said. “I don’t sense any quit in that locker room. Everybody can bury us and put us under, but we’re not quitting.”
