Transcription
It's official. The Toronto Raptors are headed to the NBA playoffs. They will face the Cleveland Cavaliers. Let's go to the film room.
>> The only thing that's originally filmed is edit [screaming] >> and I [music] I've studied older films and try to figure out how I got that impression. [music] >> I was getting ready. The unique thing about the film is an art. Exactly.
>> Well, it is not the New York Knicks that the Raptors will face. It is the Cleveland Cavaliers. And folks, the Raptors are headed to the postseason for the first s first time since 2022. They've won 46 games this season. 46 and 36. a 16game improvement compared to last year. Uh, a major step in the right direction. Brandon Ingram and Scotty Barnes turn into allstars. Scotty might end up being an allNBA and all defense level player. Colin Murray Boils is probably going to be on an all rookie team. Jacobe Walter took a major step. This was obviously a major win of a season for the Raptors organization. They also beat the Brooklyn Nets today, which is a footnote in all of this.
But the Raptors are now going to try to play and win a playoff series against a very talented Cleveland Cavaliers team. Now, you might be saying, "Well, s the Raptors beat the Cleveland Cavaliers three times this season. They are going to beat the Cavaliers again." And yeah, there might be some there might be some credence to that. We'll see. We'll see. But ultimately, they beat the Cavs uh three times. Once in October, October 31st, the Jays were still in the World Series at that time and two times in November. This was well before the Cavs traded for James Harden, well before they traded for Keon Ellis, uh, and well before they let go of Lonzo Ball, who might be a frequent visitor we go to in this little video that I'm doing. I want to recap some of those games. just kind of look at those games, maybe contextualize, see what we can take away from them, what we can't take away from them, uh what it might mean for the Raptors and Cavs in this series.
Again, we're going to have a lot of preview content because the Raptors have a week to prepare. That's perhaps one of the biggest pros to not being in the playin is the fact that the Raptors have a week to rest. They have a week to heal their bodies. Um, you know, Emanuel Quickley got injured in this game against the Brooklyn Nets. Dark Ryakovich told us postgame that he's doing an MRI on his hamstring. Of course, that is not good news. Uh, hopefully it's nothing too serious. Hopefully, Emanuel Quickley will be playing in the playoffs for the Raptors because he is all important if they want to have any chance of winning this playoff series.
Now, there's there's a lot of things that we can get into, but I want to get into the games first. So on October 31st, the Raptors beat the Cavs. It was one of their first wins of the season. Uh and they did it, if you'll remember, because of a Jameson Battle 20point game. Uh you know, RJ Barrett had a really good game against them. Brandon Ingram poured in 20. But I thought it was the combination of Jameson Battle and Brandon Ingram together, the shooting combination that really allowed for the Raptors to win that game. So, in the Cavaliers first match up against the Raptors, it was the Brandon Ingram and Jameson Battle show. Battle uh pulled off 20 points in this game. BI cooked as well with 20. And the Raptors in their clutch situations at this point in the season were really running things through this midpost area of Brandon Ingram. Feels like a century ago that this was the case, but regardless, uh a crosscreen action for BI for him to get the smaller Lonzo ball on him. And I want to just note here that this is something that the Raptors will probably use a lot in this series to target Donovan Mitchell, uh to target James Harden, to target Max Strus. They are going to put them into crosscreening actions and force them to guard one of Scotty Barnes or Brandon Ingram, particularly in this mid post area because from that point, from that vantage point, both of these wing players for the Raptors have opportunities to make plays. But it's also on the rest of these guys on the roster outside of them to knock down their shots when those guys are able to create opportunities for them. In this first game, it was Battle who did that. And so the Raptors beat the Cavs on October 31st with a combination of really, really great clutch execution from Brandon Ingram and some very good shooting from the likes of RJ Barrett and of Jameson Battle. Uh Scotty Barnes also had a tremendous rebounding game in this one. It's worth noting that Jared Allen did not play in this game for the Cleveland Cavaliers and Donovan Mitchell did not play in this game for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Also, Darius Garland, who was on the team at this point, did not play for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Also, um Max Streus didn't play for the Cleveland Cavaliers. But it's also worth noting that Yaka Purle didn't play in this game. So it's hard to take too much away from a game on October 31st for either one of these teams.
Fast forward to mid November and the Raptors are playing another game in Cleveland where they are awesome and particularly it's Scotty Barnes and Emanuel Quickley who put put on electric performances and at this point in the season the Raptors are almost fully healthy. No Colin Murray Boils for the Raptors in this game. That's the only guy from their rotation that they were missing. But the the Cavaliers themselves basically played everybody that they had outside of Jaylen Tyson and Darius Garland. And so still some injuries for the Cavaliers. The Raptors were basically fully healthy. Uh they were also running a little bit different of a rotation, but Scotty Barnes and Emanuel Quickley dominated in this game. It was incredible to watch. Uh Scotty Barnes put together a defensive player of the year type of performance with defensive plays like this where he necks this pick and roll action. So it means him shooting the gap here to stop the ball handler from driving downhill. And that gives Yaka Purle a little bit more comfort in guarding Jared Allen. It allows Emanuel Quickley to come over and guard Donovan Mitchell. And the reaction time of Scotty in this situation is elite as well. I also want to note how open Evan Mobley here is at the three-point line. I think the Raptors are going to weaponize that a lot. Evan Mobley has been an inconsistent shooter in his career to say the least. Teams are going to dare him to shoot, especially in these two big lineups that the Cavaliers like to run. And so, uh, this will be a release valve of sorts for the Cavs, but it's also somewhere where the Raptors can take advantage of, at least offensively, for the Cavaliers. And watch as Scotty reacts, blocks this shot, gets out in transition, and of course, the Raptors do their best work in transition as well. Scotty poured in 28 points, 10 rebounds, and eight assists along with six stocks in this game. He was remarkable, but it was also his playmaking that really elevated the Raptors in this game.
So, here he is in the mid post area attacking Naqucoin Tomlin. And as you see here, the Cavs actually ran a little bit of zone against the Raptors in this game, but Scotty does a great job of punishing Tomlin, getting inside, engaging the help. And I also want to note how important Yaka Purle is on offense. He's been so important for them all season offensively, but his ability to put pressure on the secondary Cavs big man will be crucial in this series on offense. He has to knock down these floaters. He has to be active offensively. And Yakob in this game was exceptional. He poured in 20 points. Uh he had seven rebounds. He got a couple of steals. He was seven of 10 from the field. Yakob in this game was an exceptional part of it. So a combination of Emanuel Quickly shooting uh Scotty Barnes's oldworld type of performance and that is how the Raptors beat a fully healthy Cavs team. There's a aversion to that that makes sense, especially because the Cavs, they were leaning so heavily on Donovan Mitchell as their only creator. It's it's the reason that they traded for James Harden in the first place. You know, Donovan in this game, he takes 18 shots. He took 17 free throws. If you remember, there were a lot of free throw calls in this game and he was he dropped in 31 points and six assists. The Cavs needed someone else and Darius Garland was not providing that for them. And this is what I'm talking about with Emanuel Quickley and his three-point shooting. If the Raptors are missing this, this is going to be a backb breakaker for their offense. IQ is so good off of these screens. Nice little flare action here for him.
So, let's fast forward all the way to mid or late November, November 24th, which is the last time that the Raptors played the Cavaliers this season. It's been a very, very long time since they've played the Cavaliers and they beat them at home in a televised, nationally televised game. Uh, I thought that was perhaps one of Brandon Ingram's best performances of the season. He carried a Raptors team that didn't much have much else going offensively. Uh, it was a good Scotty Barnes game who poured in a near triple double with 18 points, 11 rebounds, and six assists. But it was BI who did the most on offense for this team. But yeah, it was the Brandon Ingram show in Toronto on national TV. He comes off of these screens. He puts pressure on the middle of the floor for the Cavaliers. A lot of attention on him and he just makes them pay with these mid-range jump shots. This time once again attacking in that post area. Goes downhill, gets baseline, settles into this mid-range fadeaway. And as we watch a lot of spacing opportunities, a lot of shooting opportunities for Emanuel Quickley above the break, Jamal Shed in that corner, even Scotty cutting into that dunker spot, some playmaking opportunities that are now available to BI. And so that is how the Raptors uh comfortably beat the Cavs this season. It was a combination of their wings absolutely dominating Cleveland. And I think that might be the case against the Cavs even in this postseason. uh they don't have players who can guard Scotty Barnes and Brandon Ingram. Evan Mobley is the number one guy that they would put on one of those players and I can see that happening. I can see them saying that, you know, Evan Mobley is going to take the Brandon Ingram assignment or the Scotty Barnes assignment and that might end up being the case. But ultimately, I I still think the Raptors wings will get what they want. Uh and that will help the Raptors offensively.
Ultimately, this is a different Raptors team than November basketball. The Raptors in that month were enjoying some really good halfcourt offense. RJ Barrett was playing some really good basketball. R.J. is back to playing good basketball, but ultimately they are going to miss Emanuel Quickley, and if he's not playing in this series, then their three-point shooting is going to be very, very tough to come by. That being said, uh the emergence of Jacobe Walter will be very important for their three-point shooting. If he's knocking down shots like that consistently, that could be awesome. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if we do see more Jameson Battle in this playoff series just because of his playoff shooting. Wouldn't be surprised if we see AJ Lawson in spurts just because of his three-point shooting. Three-point shooting will be essential in this playoff series. And if so, they don't have Emanuel Quickley or if Emanuel Quickley is limited in this series, it will be much harder for the Raptors to try and win it. But ultimately, the fact that their wings have an advantage against the likes of Dean Wade and Max Strus uh and even Evan Mobley to a certain degree, a matchup that Scotty Barnes has favored and enjoyed in the past. I think that will help them keep up offensively. The question comes defensively for me, especially at the point of attack, especially now that the Cavs have James Harden. There are so many ways and so many times that I've seen James Harden absolutely dismantle the Toronto Raptors. Uh, of course, it's mostly been in regular season contests, but he also did it against the 2022 Raptors in their last playoff series. Uh, he didn't even have that great of a playoff series against them when he was in Philadelphia, but he absolutely did cook them in the time that he had. And I I do think that his combination of pick and roll cla craft next to guys like Evan Mobley and Jared Allen will cause tons of headaches for RJ Barrett who's not the greatest screen navigator and for Sandro Mamesi who is going to play bench minutes for this team and is not a great pick and roll role man defender. Uh, and it puts so much importance on Colin Murray Boils to be perfect as a defender because he's not that tall and so he will need to be exceptional in terms of timing when it comes to guarding these actions. I'd imagine they end up switching Colin Murray Boils more onto the ball handler. And so now you have a smaller player guarding Evan Mobley or Jared Allen and they have to punish switches. They have to punish mitch matches. I'm very excited to see the the mental battle there because on top of the James Harden pick and roll craft, you also have to worry about Donovan Mitchell attacking closeouts and attacking the seams of a defense. And again, this is going to put a lot of pressure on defenders for the Raptors who aren't the greatest at the point of attacking on the perimeter. You know, I think this is going to be a huge Jamal shed series in terms of how effective he is defensively will determine how well the Raptors are able to stop the Cavs in any capacity truthfully because the point of attack defense this season has predicated on a lot of ball pressure, but it's also been predicated on on a a level of physicality. I think Jacobe Walter will be will be able to step up and guard the likes of James Harden to a good degree. stay in front of him, make sure that he's navigating around those screens in a proper way. But once it's RJ Barrett and once they start hunting out Barrett and BI and Mamu, it could become bad news.
And let me break down some plays from the last time James Harden played the Raptors when he was a member of the LA Clippers. Similar function here between Jared Allen, who let's imagine is a Vita Zubots, and James Harden here. high screen and roll actions to get James Harden a runway to get downhill, right? And now the rest of the defense is reactive. And so you see James Harden here, high pick and roll. You know, Mamo immediately picks up, but he's already behind the eightball. Zubots now has a wide open lane to the basket. Uh Scotty Barnes is not going to help off of the shooter. This is actually Brandon Ingram's rotation to step up on this, right? So BI as the weak side defender will be in insanely important against the likes of Jared Allen and Evan Mobley. He needs to step up in this situation and he doesn't and it's a Zubot stunt. Even when it's a good defender on James Harden like Scotty Barnes, they're still going to put them in actions and attack Mamu. And as you see here, Mamu is going to get attacked. He's going to get downhill. And again, Scotty's behind the eightball. And even when the Raptors do have this help defender that's going to pick up, it's not that much uh of an issue for Zubots to settle into these short mid-range shots. Exactly what J. Allen can do. And James Harden is elite at trying to hunt out mismatches. So, as you see here, Harden is here. He wants to get Grady Dick on him. He's trying to force this situation uh and churn out just basically a mismatch against uh Grady Dick. Scotty Barnes stays with him. Run a pick and roll now trying to hunt Mamu. Now he gets Mamu. Now he gets the matchup that he wants. He goes one-on-one. Uh Mamu can't handle his speed or his crossover or anything and he gets a jump shot at. Those are the type of situations that I think the Raptors could get themselves in trouble. It's just James Harden's craft is very very tough to deal with at the point of attack. I think their best defender would probably be Jacobe Walter on James Harden just because Harden isn't necessarily that great at getting downhill anymore at his age, but he can still get into his mid-range bag. And I think Jacobe does a pretty good job of of providing a contest, of staying lateral, of staying quick and and limiting those driving opportunities. I also think he's probably the best screen navigation guy on the team. So, his importance is very crucial. Uh, but there will be reps where Jamal Shed has to guard James Harden and there will be reps where, you know, James Harden is going to hunt out RJ Barrett and Brandon Ingram and he's going to get Mamu involved in actions. And so, a lot of these guys will have to defend and defend at a high level. Uh, that is the big testament uh and I guess the big test, excuse me, for how the Raptors defense can function.
Of course, um there is different wrinkles to the Raptors defense. Now, the Colin Murray Bole Scotty Barnes connection has been one of the best half court defenses in the NBA this season. And so, when those two guys are out there causing havoc, switching, uh, really forcing defenses or offenses to to put the ball on the floor and make a decision, those two guys cause a lot of turnovers and those two guys really make it hard for teams in half court settings. Uh, the other thing I think that has improved over the season, Emanuel Quickley is a pretty good defender and a pretty good team defender, especially off of the ball, making decisions and making reads. If they miss him, they're also missing one of their more sound point of attack defenders. The other aspect that I think is important and well worth noting is Yakob Purle is back. He's functioning and he's had moments over the last couple of weeks where he's looked great, where he's finished strong. Tonight he was okay, but there are also moments where he just doesn't look 100%. And I think it'll depend what kind of Yaka Purle the Raptors get in terms of how competitive this series will be. Because if they are getting the type of Yaka Purle that was in the first half of this game, getting dropped by Ben Serough and having one rebound, they're not going to win any games in this series. They need the version of Yakob Purle that I showed in some of these highlights, which was 20 points and seven rebounds and an efficient seven of 10 shooting from the field. I think Yakob is capable of that. I think we've seen him do that even recently for this team. He had an excellent game against the Miami Heat, but you got to put it together for a series. And so there's factors on both sides, but I think the the main factors that pop out to me are the Raptors point of attack defense, how they're able to guard Donovan Mitchell and James Harden. uh what kind of defensive coverages the Cavs throw out at the Raptors wings in Scotty Barnes and Brandon Ingram. How much Scotty and BI can impress upon the Cavs defense to react and be reactionary and how well can the Raptors shoot the ball? I think those are the three biggest keys to this thing. And if I had to add a fourth one, I would say rebounding and just how good Yaka Purle looks.
That was probably going to be the focus for any playoff series for the Raptors. Even if they face the Knicks, it would be how are they going to guard Jaylen Brunson at the point of attack. Uh how are they going to rebound and outrebound Mitchell Robinson and Carl Anthony Towns? And how are they going to guard Cat in in space? And are they going to be able to have the shooting to keep up with the Knicks? So, a lot of these things are kind of copy and paste. Uh, but on top of guarding Jaylen Brunson, which has a little bit of James Harden to him, they also have to guard Donovan Mitchell, who might end up being a a second team AllNBA member this season. Like he's having an incredible year. And uh, I know there's a lot of like playoff conversations about some of these Cavs guys, right? Like playoff Harden, he hasn't been good. He's had moments where he's choked. And I did a video for The Athletic on this. There are very very valid moments of James Harden being a playoff failure. Uh there's also incredible moments where James Harden drops 45 on your head and you know comes into Boston game one without Joel Embiid Sixers versus Celtics and goes out and wins that game and puts the pressure on the Celtics. So like there are also moments where James Harden goes absolutely crazy in the playoffs and doesn't get the love for it. So his PR is in the gutter, no question. But I do think that James Harden particularly plays against the Raptors extremely well. Um, and of course the lights are brightest. Jared Allen, Evan Mobley, those two guys. I know there are playoff questions against them too and how how they deal with playoff basketball, how they deal with physicality. I think all of those things are valid, but those are also things we haven't necessarily seen from this Raptors group. This is the first playoff series for them.
And this leads me to my final point. If you've made it this far, I appreciate you guys so much for tapping in. Again, there's going to be a lot of playoff preview content over the next week or so. Um, you know, we're we're actually going to be in Cleveland as well. So, that's that's awesome. That's great. We're looking forward to that. But this Raptor season is a success regardless of how this ends for them. Um, I I think them getting to the playoffs, not playing a playing game, uh, reaffirming to themselves that Scotty Barnes is a player worth building around. Brandon Ingram having a healthy year in which he played 70 plus games for the second time in his career and the first time since he was a rookie is a testament to the Raptors coaching and training staff. It's a testament to Brandon Ingram and his ability to stay healthy and have a good all-star season. Of course, there are questions about the makeup of this Raptors team, how this roster functions, uh the eventual ceiling that it could hit in terms of it not being a championship worthy team. All of those things are true. The roster construction is wonky, but there are tangible takeaways, positive takeaways from this Raptor season, from Jacobe Walter becoming a legitimate rotation player, a guy who you might be able to see as a fifth starter in the NBA eventually. to Colin Murray Boils becoming a legitimate building block and having his best stretch of basketball in the last month of the season. So, I think there are a lot of great takeaways from this Raptors team. Of course, we can take away the the bad stuff, right? They have struggled against the best teams in the NBA. They have not beat any of the good teams in any tangible or meaningful way. Uh Grady Dick has fallen out of the rotation and so one of the guys that they drafted it what 13th I think it was. um just doesn't look like he's going to stick around. Uh when it comes to some of their other developmental players like a Jonathan Mo and a Jameson Battle, they haven't necessarily gotten like tons of opportunity to shine and and be like legitimate guys. Oi Baji didn't work out for them. So, another guy that they bet on that didn't necessarily work out. There's certain bad takeaways that we can take away from this, but the positives are the most important part to me because there was a real question and you can see it from a lot of the preseason overunders. You can see it from the way that uh national media people and NBA pundits were speaking about the Raptors to begin this season. Not a lot of people expected them to win 46 games. Not a lot of people expected them to be in the top six of the Eastern Conference. By the way, Raptors Republic did predict both of those things. Myself, Trey, Samson, we all predicted top six and I believe like 44, 45 plus wins. Regardless, like they have shown that there is a blueprint worth working with. And now I actually think getting to the playoffs and playing in a postseason setting will give the Raptors organization so much information to work with. Yes, an 82 game season is important for information, but so is a postseason. How do these guys react in this situation both mentally and on the court? Um, how do they react to adversity? How do they react to certain coverages, certain defensive coverages when the shots not falling? Who are they relying on? Etc., etc. they can answer a lot of questions about who can and can't be with them as they take that next step. So, I guess a congratulations is in order to the Raptors and the rest of the organization for making it this far and for now having a chance to play in a postseason series. We'll see what happens, guys. Again, there will be a lot of preview content. I know I went long in this one, but the Raptors are headed to the playoffs. I'm excited. What do you want me to do? I'm sure you're excited as well. We appreciate you guys as always tapping into Raptors Republic. Again, more pre play playoff preview content is on the way. We appreciate you guys tapping in with us. Personally, I'm very excited because this is going to be the first time I can cover a Raptors playoff series in person. I was not covering I mean, I was covering the Raptors, but I wasn't a credentialed media member in 2022 when they played the Sixers. I was not a credentialed media member uh before that either. I was not a credentialed media member for the uh playing game as well. So, this is this is cool for me personally to be able to go out and cover these guys uh and do it so up close. Anyways, appreciate you guys as always. Thank you very much for tapping in. Uh we'll see you guys [music] for the rest of this playoff run. Peace out.