Raptors offense lags badly in Eastern Conference finals

CLEVELAND — If the Toronto Raptors are to have any hope in the Eastern Conference finals (they don’t, but just play along here), they need to match the Cleveland Cavaliers offensively.

Like the Cavs, the Raptors were a top-five offensive team in the regular season. But while Cleveland has taken their offense to a new level in the playoffs, Toronto has mostly slogged through two series and the first two games of this one. Through 16 games, the Raptors rank 12th offensively in the postseason, having scored less than a point per possession.

Unable to keep up with the Cavs, Toronto suffered its second straight blowout in Game 2 on Thursday, a 108-89 Cleveland victory that looked a lot like Game 1, despite some defensive adjustments from Toronto.

Early in Game 1, LeBron James posted up DeMarre Carroll on the right side of the floor. He spun baseline, Bismack Biyombo was on the opposite side of the lane, and there was nobody to meet James at the rim as he laid the ball in.

Early in Game 2, James posted up Carroll on the right side of the floor. This time, Biyombo slid over to the strong side to help Carroll. But that meant that Luis Scola had to leave Kevin Love on the left wing in order to help on Biyombo’s man — Tristan Thompson — in the paint. James saw the adjustment and zipped a pass to Love for an open 3-pointer.

The Raptors picked a different poison on Thursday and it didn’t matter. James hasn’t made a shot from outside the paint in the first two games and it hasn’t mattered. The Cavs have too many weapons, too many ways of scoring, and too much LeBron James for the Raptors to have anything more than modest success defensively in this series.

…

continue reading in source www.nba.com