NBA Playoff Schedule 2016: Cavaliers vs. Raptors Game 2 Info, Predictions
“It’s not how many times you get hit; it’s how many times you get up that matters,” they say.
It looks like the Toronto Raptors are going to get hit hard four times, and stay down for good after that.
LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers opened up a can of you-know-what on the No. 2 seed in Game 1 Tuesday night, which ended in a 115-84 blowout.
It was every bit as ugly as the score indicates.
Kyrie Irving dropped a smooth 27 points to lead the scoring charge, and LBJ had himself a feast in the middle with Toronto center Jonas Valanciunas sidelined. No. 23 finished with 24 points, six rebounds and four assists while shooting 11-of-13 from the field.
Will the Raptors steal Game 2, or at least make the Cavaliers sweat?
Here’s how to watch and see.
Key Info
| Thursday, May 19 | 8:30 p.m. ET | Quicken Loans Arena | ESPN | CLE 1, TOR 0 |
Predictions
J.R. Smith gets back on track
You can only keep Earl Smith Jr. down for so long.
The eccentric shooting guard finished Game 1 with just five points on 1-of-5 shooting. He failed to make a three-pointer (0-3) for the first time all postseason.
The Cavaliers rode his stroke in their sweep of the Atlanta Hawks, which featured an average of 11 points and 3.5 nightly triples from Smith. He shot an unreal 50 percent from distance while firing seven bombs a contest.
That’s Smith’s game, though—red-hot or freezing-cold. Throughout these playoffs, he’s been more fire than ice, making Tuesday’s dud the exception rather than the rule.
Expect to see a sharper Smith on Thursday.
The Raptors have some pride, so they’ll take the loss in stride and fight harder to keep Game 2 closer, as Terrence Ross told Chris Haynes of Cleveland.com.
"We beat them [in the regular season], so we don't feel like we have anything to fear like they're a superteam or anything," Ross said. "But we're just going out there to play our game and compete."
Smith wasn’t needed in Game 1. As Bleacher Report’s Greg Swartz noted, the Cavs poured in 56 points inside the paint—more than any of their other playoff contests.
Count on the Cavaliers winning Game 2, but not in a way that flat-out embarrasses the Raptors. If that holds true, expect Smith to get back to his sharpshooting ways.
DeRozan struggles
DeMar DeRozan is auditioning for a new contract this summer.
Based on his play for much of the postseason, though, you’d never know that.
The All-Star shooting guard is averaging 19.9 points in the postseason for the second-seeded Raptors while shooting 36.5 percent from the field and a horrendous 17.4 percent from three-point land.
In Game 1 against Cleveland, he was held in check for 18 points—nine fewer than Irving, who also took 17 shots. DeRozan was 9-of-17, missed his lone three-pointer and failed to earn a trip to the charity stripe.
Kyle Lowry was also absent at the free-throw line, which has never happened to this backcourt before, per NBA.com:
As Josh Eberley of Today’s Fastbreak noted, the Cavaliers' No. 4 option has outplayed DeRozan this postseason, which puts the Raptors in a serious hole:
This time of year, teams need their stars to take hold of the moment, not shy away from it. On Tuesday, DeRozan shied away.
Richard Jefferson didn’t, as noted by Harsh Dave of SB Nation’s Raptors HQ:
DeRozan has shot over 50 percent from the field just twice in these playoffs—Game 5 against the Miami Heat and Game 1 against the Cavs. He’s unlikely to string together strong shooting nights back-to-back, especially with pressure mounting following the epic whupping his team received.
Expect to see the shaky shooting guard again on Thursday.
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