Game Preview Article: Toronto Raptors @ Cleveland Cavaliers
This is a super tough spot for Cleveland, as they will be playing their fourth game in five nights. They have played their last three games on the road at Orlando, Miami and Chicago last night, but now it's time to get back home to host the Raptors. Cleveland showed yesterday against the Bulls that they have really nice chemistry and they aren't as dependent from Kyrie Irving as most people think. As I've been mentioning time and time again, their second unit is really decent with the two former Memphis's players in Wayne Ellington and Marreese Speigths and it was exactly their bench that was the key factor on their win yesterday. Irving won't play tonight neither and so, it will be interesting to check if Cleveland has the proper mental toughness to compete tonight in a poor spot after such a big win last night. I remember that Cleveland had been crushed by Chicago in the first two games played between these two teams earlier on the season, so this win was certainly a big achievement for them.
Toronto keeps struggling on offense, as I've been mentioning time and time again. They have no ball movement and once again on their last game against Washington, they failed to reach the 20 assists mark. They had just 13 assists against the Wizards for a ridiculous 44% assist/rate! The ISO ball won't work forever and after being their hero against the Knicks, Rudy Gay shot just 1-11 FG against Washington! I took the Over in that game with the expectation that Toronto with the 2 days they've had to prepare that game would be able to improve their offense, but that simply didn't happen. Washington's defense is way better than Cleveland's, so if the Raptors's offense struggles one more time tonight, then Toronto will officially have no offensive chemistry whatsoever.
The Lakers entered the game red hot from the outside and that allowed them to be competitive at the end of the first quarter. After that, Denver took control of the game and gave no chances to the Lakers. The LA team's lack of speed was once again completely exposed against the league's most explosive team. Virtually almost every turnover or a missed shot that went into the hands of a Nuggets's player ended on a dunk or in an easy transition layup for Denver. After the game, Ty Lawson said it all:
“Once they missed a shot, it was like a jailbreak”; “Everybody was trying to get down the court and get the layup”
Denver ended the game with an incredible 33 fast break points and 19-27 FG in transition plays for a remarkable 1.35 PPP (Points Per Possession). If we add 78 points scored in the paint, not even the fact that the Nuggets were poor from the perimeter with 5-18 3pts and in the free throw line with 16-27 FT stopped them from winning comfortably the game. The Lakers were on a poor spot, but their starters hung around with the Nuggets's starters. Note that with Kobe Bryant on the court (39 minutes), the Lakers were outscored by the Nuggets by just one point, but as soon as the second units were on the court, Denver's huge depth edge gave them the key for an easy win.
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