The Cleveland Cavaliers raced to a 1-0 series lead in the second round series with the Toronto Raptors after taking down the Raps on Tuesday, 113-112. Round 2 game 1 for the Raptors could go down in history as the reason for the downfall of the Canadian franchise. If they lose to Cleveland in the Eastern Conference semifinals their May 1st fourth quarter performance will have been the defining moment. This season’s playoffs is their best shot at making the NBA finals to date, and the crushing blow of not making it through the second round (if so) here will scramble the franchise, with “rebuild” headlining the sports section of every paper in The North. There is a lot riding on game 2 and 3 at the Air Canada Centre. Read on for a preview of Game 2 of this series this coming Thursday.
Even with Kevin Love playing like a headless chicken and LeBron James seemingly not in his A-game, the Cavs still managed to steal a win in Game 1, largely because a lot of non-LeBron James stepped up. Kyle Korver had 19 points, J.R. Smith became the first LeBron teammate to score 20 points in a game this postseason with 20, while Jeff Green and Tristan Thompson had 16 and 14, respectively. As for James, he still had a triple-double of 26 points, 13 assists, and 11 rebounds, though, he was a horrendous 12-for-30 from the field. The Cavs’ 3-point shooting clicked in Game 1 with 14 doing down from deep out of 35 attempts. It remains to be seen whether LeBron’s supporting cast could keep this up, but Game 1 was a good start.
The Cavs are 5-1-1 ATS in their last seven games in Toronto.
Betting on the Toronto Raptors (-6.5)
The Raptors are still the Raptors who we all thought they were at least in Game 1: a bunch of scared kids against in the face of James and the Cavs in the playoffs. Despite enjoying a 14-point lead at some point in the game, Toronto failed to stave off the Cavs, who also capitalized on the Raptors’ 14 turnovers and converted into 21 points. The Raps were reaping success early in the game by pounding the ball to Jonas Valanciunas, who finished with 21 points and 21 rebounds. Valanciunas overpowered Kevin Love and the Cavs’ frontline underneath the basket and there’s no reason for Toronto not to run their offense plenty of times through Valanciunas again. Meanwhile, DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry had 22 and 18 points, respectively.
The Raptors just needs to have more poise down the stretch. They are 3-1 ATS in their last four home games.
