NBA Playoffs 2018: 5 keys to Toronto Raptors vs. Cleveland Cavaliers matchup
2. Slowing down LeBron
After witnessing LeBron James beat the Pacers almost single-handedly, asking anyone on this Raptors team to go out and shut down LeBron is obviously an impossible task. DeMarre Carroll was signed for that purpose in 2015, but injuries plagued his tenure in Toronto and LeBron being freaking awesome generally rendered him an ineffective option. Although P.J. Tucker played well for the Raptors after the trade deadline last year, Cleveland essentially refused to guard him and his inability to score sabotaged the Toronto offense.
The task of guarding LeBron will fall upon the young shoulders of OG Anunoby this season. OG is a sturdy defender, and probably the best perimeter defender on the Toronto roster. That’s extremely impressive for a rookie. Anunoby didn’t play a ton against the Wizards, but he’s going to have to play more for Toronto to survive a potential LeBron onslaught. He at least has the physical build to make James work. Playing Anunonby big minutes could lead to the same bind that Toronto faced last year with Tucker though. While OG shot 37% from 3-point land this season, he’s not a guy that puts up a ton of attempts and his shooting trailed off as the season wore on. If Cleveland doesn’t have to guard him closely, things could get ugly fast for the Raptors.
Beyond Anunoby, the Raptors don’t have a ton of great options. Paskal Siakam will see time on James and while he’s generally an effective defender that works his butt off, that’s not an ideal matchup for him. We’ve seen C.J. Miles attempt to guard LeBron in the past, especially in Indiana’s round one series against Cleveland in 2017. Predictably, things didn’t go well.
As we’ve seen time and time again, LeBron poses an extremely difficult matchup problem for almost every team. Bogdanovic and Thad Young had some decent moments against him last series and a ridiculous minutes load definitely wore James down at the end of games. Toronto has a few dudes to throw at him but if Anunoby can’t hang at all, the Raptors are in trouble.