Can Caris LeVert and the Nets escape the smothering Raptors defense?

If the Brooklyn Nets want to compete, Caris LeVert has to overcome a stifling Toronto Raptors defense.

On paper, this first-round series of the 2020 NBA Playoffs seems completely one-sided. The Toronto Raptors are the defending NBA champs and are playing with a chip on their shoulder, taking exception to being the team that “no one is talking about.” They’ve got a smothering, amoebic defense, and the Brooklyn Nets are missing Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Spencer Dinwiddie, DeAndre Jordan, Taurean Prince and Wilson Chandler.

Put more simply, a team giving major minutes to Tyler Johnson, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, Chris Chiozza and Donta Hall doesn’t have much of a shot against a completely healthy Raptors squad that’s snagged the 2-seed in the top-heavy Eastern Conference.

However, these Nets have taken the NBA bubble by storm, and if it weren’t for the Phoenix Suns going 8-0, Jacque Vaughn’s unlikely squad going 5-3 — and nearly 6-2, if not for a missed shot at the buzzer against the Portland Trail Blazers — would’ve been the surprise story of the seeding games.

Brooklyn’s seventh-ranked offense in the bubble didn’t get the job done by any one player taking over; Caris LeVert was the team’s leading scorer at 25.0 points per game on 48 percent shooting, but there was no T.J. Warren-like detonation of 30-35 points a night to be found in Orlando.

The Nets’ offensive might revolved around steady contributions from the entire supporting cast, with seven players averaging at least 10 points per game and another two tacking on at least eight points per game. That kind of balanced scoring helped them score at least 115 points in their first six seeding games, shocking opponents with their potency on that end.

However, even if LeVert wasn’t putting up insane numbers, his role as the lead scorer, playmaker (6.7 assists per game) and star-level initiator (32.6 usage percentage) made him the focal point of Brooklyn’s offense, allowing the rest of the role players to fall in line without having to step too far outside their comfort zones.

That will make him the priority No. 1 for Toronto’s stifling defense, since guys like Chiozza, TLC or even Joe Harris and Jarrett Allen aren’t going to beat anybody by themselves. Severing LeVert’s driving lanes is the same as cutting the head off the proverbial snake, which is a specialty area for a Raptors defense that ranked second in D-rating before the hiatus and jumped to first in the bubble, a full 2.7 points per 100 possessions stingier than the next-closest team.

Toronto certainly has the personnel to make life difficult for Caris LeVert. With long, rangy defenders like OG Anunoby, Pascal Siakam, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Terence Davis, not to mention pesky guards who get under opponents’ skin like Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet, the Raptors have the means to hound LeVert up and down the floor.

However, don’t count LeVert out just because he’ll go back to being Brooklyn’s third option next year. Excluding a January meeting with Toronto in which he only played 16 minutes (it was his first game back from injury), LeVert torched the Raptors for a combined 57 points on 22-of-38 shooting over their next two meetings. Over all three games against Toronto this year, LeVert averaged an impressive 29.5 points per 36 minutes on 71.5 percent true shooting.

Given that LeVert is a lead ball-handler and perimeter facilitator, the task of slowing him down may start with Lowry and VanVleet. LeVert was particularly unkind to VanVleet during the regular season, lighting him up for 15 points on 7-of-8 shooting in just 5:21 of matchup time, per NBA.com’s defensive tracking data. Lowry fared slightly better, limiting LeVert to three points on 1-of-4 shooting in 2:36 of matchup time over their two meetings.

Whether Nick Nurse trusts his guards to handle that job or decides to switch things up with longer defenders like Anunoby, Hollis-Jeffferson and/or Siakam, the Raptors have plenty of options to cut off Brooklyn’s point of attack at its source. It will take a team effort — an area Toronto specializes in on the defensive side of the ball — to contain LeVert, since his decision-making and high usage is what keeps putting Brooklyn’s unassuming bunch of role players in positions to succeed and spread the wealth around.

LeVert is prone to offensive explosions, like his 37 points against Toronto, his 51-point bomb against the Boston Celtics in March or the 37 he just hung on Portland last week, but if the Raptors can prevent those kinds of game-swinging performances and hinder his impact as a creator, they’ll simultaneously reduce the role players’ effectiveness, breaking his well-oiled, well-coached machine down cog-by-cog.

There’s a good chance that even somewhat hindering Caris LeVert will be enough for Toronto to win the series handily; even factoring in the element of surprise Brooklyn has repeatedly used to its advantage in Orlando, the Raptors are just a better team with better talent. Taking out the captain of this ship and tying him to the mast, however, would leave the Nets all but rudderless.