BEAST OF THE EAST: Toronto Raptors and Cleveland Cavaliers Playoffs Match Up
When I asked the Toronto Raptors own "King of the North", DeMar DeRozan, how Coach Dwane Casey has managed to get his team to remain consistent this season, the answer was plain and simple: yell.
"He’s been yelling a lot lately," DeRozan playfully answered. "So we’re trying to do everything we can to keep him from yelling."
But things are a bit different south of the border in Cleveland. We don’t know if Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue may have taken a page from Casey’s book when dealing with his own super star LeBron James. But we do know the King doesn't bow to anyone. In a road game loss against Portland, both men were involved in what looked like a shouting match from opposite ends of the bench by the end of the fourth quarter.
And this hasn’t been the first time this season we’ve seen these two go at it. Earlier this year in Toronto, LeBron James exchanged some words with Lue while giving his team a verbal lashing when the Cavs suffered from an embarrassing 23-point deficit in the first half.
"We all have to be accountable for our actions and for how we play," James explained after the blow out game. "I was just trying to hold everybody accountable."
Cleveland and Toronto Eastern Conference Final has been on the lips of almost every basketball fan. Both teams are dead even in regular season play. But it’s been pretty evident that the Cavaliers and the Raptors have experienced polar opposite stories this season. So which team is fully equipped to handle an NBA Finals and reign as the Beast of the East?
On one end, you have the Cavs who are sitting at third in the East. A squad with arguably the best player in the world. A team that understands the inner workings of the post season and what it takes to advance out of the Eastern Conference Finals. Cleveland has already climbed the highest mountain imaginable and won an NBA Championship against a fully load Golden State Warriors
But this year feels different for NBA fans. The Cavs season has been nothing but a drama filled day time soap opera and it has impacted the way this team has played. And when players start hurling their food at the coaching staff (JR Smith reportedly threw a bowl of soup at his assistant coach Damon Jones) you know it’s bad. Cavs coach Tyronn Lue has even remarked that players may not be in it for the rights reasons.
"…if guys have agendas, we've got to get rid of our agendas and play the right way."
So where did it all go sour? It first began with the exit of Kyrie Irving in the offseason, leaving the ball club with questions about who’s going to fill the shoes of the perennial point guard. And when the Cavs started to have a rough season, the locker room finger pointing began. All this dysfunction followed with the controversial trade of Isaiah Thomas, Kevin Love’s two-month absence, and now Tyronn Lue taking a leave due to health issues that include sleep deprivation and chest pains. Describing their season as a circus would be an understatement. Even though LeBron and company are talented enough and definitely have a shot at returning to the Finals, team chemistry and off the court controversy maybe their own destruction.
And then you have the Raptors: A drama free team that has to deal with the critique of its peers. A franchise that commonly hears disparaging remarks about their playoff shortcomings. After Toronto’s loss to Cleveland this week, sports personality Skip Bayless wasn’t shy about putting Toronto in its place.
"Toronto is still Toronto," mocked the Fox commentator. "They look good until it’s time, until they step on the floor with the beasts of the East. Then they turn right back into the baby dinosaurs. It’s just the Raptors. They’re not a factor. LeBron is going to his eighth straight NBA Finals."
Even after Toronto delivered a 34-point blowout game (133-94) against Cleveland in January without Kyle Lowry, they are still considered a dark horse pick for many. Their loss to Cavaliers on Wednesday night, and LeBron’s immaculate stat line of 34 points, 17 assists, 7 rebounds and 0 turnovers was overshadowed by the fact that they were able to slay the Cavs earlier in the season. Either way the Raptors have gradually climbed the rope of success this season. They sit on top of the Eastern Conference and are the third best in the league.
But Toronto has more than Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan to lean on. The Raps have seen the emergence of their centre Jonas Valanciunas, whose averaged 15 points and 10 rebounds while shooting over 50 per cent from the field goal in the last 10 games. Toronto’s bench play also ranks among the best in the league coming in third in overall scoring beating the Cavs. But post season success has been another story for the Raps. Toronto has failed to get to out of the East and into NBA Finals. The only silver lining they have is their failed experiences can be valuable in how not to let their chance at the Larry O’Brien Trophy slip away. Especially when they’ve repeatedly fell to the Cavs, a team they’re well acquainted with and might have to face in the post season.
So far in the regular season match up the Raptors are leading in field goal percentage with 52 in comparison to Cleveland who shoot 48. They also beat them from behind the arch with 43 per cent while the Cavs shoot 42. Seven players on the Raptors average double figures and four of them are bench players.
Toronto will travel back to Cleveland in less than a week. This will be the last time these two teams see each other for the regular season. As for who should be crowned the beast of the East? Well, that will all be decided in the playoffs.