toronto raptors

Scotiabank Arena has been a house of horrors for the Cavs over the past few seasons.

Prior to Saturday night’s game, the Raptors had won 10 of the past 11 meetings with the Cavs on Toronto’s home court. That included a 124-121 win on New Year’s Day – the first of only two losses for the Cavaliers in 2024 so far. Perhaps more memorable to Cavs fans was the Raptors’ 108-105 opening-night victory in 2022, during which Darius Garland suffered a left-eye injury that cost him several games.

Over the past two or three seasons, the Raptors have been a tough matchup for this iteration of the Cavs. The Raptors have good size and “length” (as they say in the popular parlance), and they seemed to outmuscle the Cavs at times in recent matchups.

That wasn’t the case on Saturday.

The current rendition of the Toronto Raptors is a mashup of the Raptors, Knicks and Jazz, and the organization seems to be in a weird limbo – “purgatory” might be the better word ­– of trying to rebuild and reload at the same time. They’re building around Scottie Barnes, who has a ton of upside, but their starting lineup isn’t terrible.

That said, the current rendition of the Cleveland Cavaliers is really good. And they take care of business against sub-.500 teams.

The Cavs’ 119-95 win in Toronto was just as non-competitive as the score indicates. They led 67-47 at halftime and warmed the heart of J.B. Bickerstaff with a season-high 21 assists on 27 shots in the first half.

The Cavs just kept pouring it on in the second half.

The Cavs’ frontcourt flexed its muscles against a disjointed Raptors squad that was playing its second night of a back-to-back. Jarrett Allen had 18 points and 15 rebounds, his 24th double-double of the season. Evan Mobley had 17 points and 11 boards in 27 minutes.

All five Cavaliers starters scored in double figures, and three reserves – Georges Niang, Caris LeVert and Isaac Okoro – did as well.

Considering that Toronto had won four straight against the Cavs – and they now employ the likes of Kelly Olynyk and former Knicks R.J. Barrett and Immanuel Quickley – this one gets honorable mention as one of the most satisfying wins of the 2023-2024 season. And I just don’t like the Raptors.

Defense Travels Well

Heading into the All-Star break, we have a pretty good sample size of data to feed into the Cavaliers’ formula for success. This particular data point is pretty compelling: The Cavs are 11-0 when holding opponents to 100 points or less this season.

Cleveland held Toronto to 40% shooting and 9-of-31 from 3-point range.

“I think our guys have completely bought into the idea of what they’re capable of defensively, and understand how important that is for our success,” Bickerstaff told reporters after the game. “And they take pride in it. It’s something they feed off and they want to do. They get upset when guys score on them. They get upset when they give up offensive rebounds or blow an assignment.

“I just want our guys to believe in it the way that they do, and understand, we can turn it up a notch even more, and keep getting better at it, understanding our system more, keep working together on our communication, all those things. But we just want opponents to feel us. We want to be a heavyweight on their shoulders every night.”