TORONTO — Two teams trying to get to the same place but relying on very different means to get there met at Scotiabank Arena as what promises to be an intensely competitive and compelling NBA regular season got underway in earnest on Wednesday night.
There are probably eight teams in the East that think they are good enough to advance to the conference Finals.
The Toronto Raptors and the Cleveland Cavaliers, who squared off Wednesday, are two of those teams
The Raptors, in their quest to contend, doubled down on their strong finish from a year ago, and ran their roster back, with a few tweaks.
The visiting Cavs surrendered control of five of their future draft picks, their own first pick from this year and two rotation players for Donovan Mitchell, hoping that adding one more star to their promising core will lift them into contention.
As might be expected on the first of 82, the results could only be inconclusive.
But a hard-nosed 108-105 win over a team that promises to be battling the Raptors for playoff positioning all year?
You have to be happy with that.
But the Cavaliers have to be pleased with their early returns on the Mitchell deal. With starting point guard Darius Garland out for the second half after getting poked in the eye, Mitchell had the ball in his hands as much as he wanted it, and Toronto had a hard time keeping him out of the lane. He went off for 31 points and nine assists in his Cleveland debut.
Similarly, Toronto has to be encouraged that one of the trends it bet on carrying over seems like it will.
Pascal Siakam’s performance in the second half of last season was the prime mover in the Raptors’ late surge and — having pledged to prove himself as a top-five player — he got off to a strong start against Cleveland. He carried the offence in the third quarter when the Raptors were lagging and were it not for some foul trouble (he eventually was disqualified in the final minute) and some iffy free-throw shooting (4-of-8) and shaky finishing by his teammates, his 23-point, 11-rebound and four-steal — he only had one assist — line would have been even more impressive.
The Raptors will likely need all they can get from Siakam as they struggled to score most of the game from their half-court offence — an issue for much of last season.
They can score in transition though — that hasn’t changed. After the Raptors knocked down four straight threes to start the fourth quarter to pull back from an eight-point deficit to finish the third, it was a gorgeous assist from Siakam to O.G. Anunoby (18 points) that gave the Raptors their first lead of the second half.
Another drive from Anunoby in transition kept things rolling. But a triple from Gary Trent Jr. (19 points) in the corner and a floater from Siakam – both against set defences – put the Raptors up by six with 1:33 to play. It got pretty tense from that point as the Cavs worked their way to the line enough to cut Toronto’s lead to one with 4.5 seconds to play, but Scottie Barnes found a streaking Precious Achiuwa for a dunk to break the Cavs press and put the game on ice.
The Raptors shot 41.9 per cent from the floor and 43.3 per cent from deep as all five starters finished with double figures in scoring. The Cavaliers shot 48.7 per cent from the floor and made 10 threes to Toronto’s 13, which was the difference.
So an encouraging start, which should bode well, and might be considered necessary, given the Raptors face a tough slate of games to open the season and put a lot of off-season emphasis on leveraging their continuity to hit the ground running.
Still, we can have all the expectations we want, but what are coach Nick Nurse’s expectations for a team that finished with a 34-17 surge to close last season, came back almost entirely intact and added some depth?
“Always kind of go into [the season]wondering what the ceiling is and try to get there,” Nurse said. “It really is. I know this sounds like a somewhat boring answer, but it really is a daily process. This is why tonight is so valuable, because we’re gonna learn a lot tonight and tomorrow about taking steps towards where we can go. We’re gonna go out there and give a great effort tonight, and then give a good effort as a staff tonight and tomorrow morning to let us know what can make us better tomorrow going into the next one. That is really what you’re trying to do. I think this team has got a chance. They’ve got to play hard. They do tend play hard and guard and compete. We’re hard to play against, all those kinds of things. It’s just continuing to climb up that ladder of where we think we can go.”
The first step was — in theory — a doozy. Unlike the stand-pat Raptors the Cavaliers went for it this this past off-season when mortgaging their future to acquire 26-year-old, three-time all-star Mitchell, teaming him with Garland to give Cleveland an all-star backcourt to go along with their twin tower front court of star sophomore forward Evan Mobley and all-star centre Jarrett Allen.
The Raptors now go to Brooklyn to face the Nets. Then come two on the road in Miami, two at home against the 76ers and the new-look Atlanta Hawks. Not a softie in the bunch.
“I know there is a lot of people saying we have a really hard schedule to start here, and I’m not brushing it off by saying it doesn’t really matter who we play,” said Nurse. “Like we have to go out and play no matter whether it’s somebody everybody thinks is good or not supposed to be good. We got to go out and compete and play. Thai’s just the way it is us for us.”
The first quarter was emblematic of the formula the Raptors will certainly want to refine as they forced the Cavaliers into six turnovers, and after some sloppy ball-handling of their own (the Raptors coughed up five giveaways) were able put a gap on Cleveland. Fred VanVleet hit a triple after a Barnes steal, then Barnes hit one after a steal on the inbounds, giving the Raptors a 28-22 lead after 12 minutes. The Raptors pushed their lead to 11 with two more quick scores to start the second quarter, but the Cavaliers were able to turn the momentum with a 13-0 run of their own that eventually translated into a 57-51 halftime lead for the visitors.
The Raptors’ problems were their own making. While one of the Raptors’ points of emphasis was to get to the rim more and — presumably score more once there — as a way to improve their halfcourt efficiency, it took a while to take.
Toronto was just 2-of-10 on shots at the rim in the first half — which according to Cleaningtheglass.com is in the ‘zero percentile’ for efficiency. Mobley and Allen likely had something to do with that, as they combined for a pair of blocks and several other ‘oh no, I’m going to get blocked’ type misses.
So it wasn’t an elegant season-opening win. But it was a win. They’re going to be hard to come by this season in a tough conference.
But the Raptors want to earn their share and have started 1-0.
