The last four games for the Toronto Raptors have been less than ideal. Since Kawhi Leonard has been sidelined, this group is 2-2, which probably would’ve been 1-3 if Scottie Barnes hadn't carried the Raptors in the fourth quarter Monday night. They've struggled in the half-court, committed an insane number of bad fouls, and shown poor execution at all levels of the game. However, despite all that, I still believe this Raptors team, at full strength, is better than its first-round playoff opponent from last season: the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Sure, the Cavs are sporting the same 4-3 record as the Raptors, but their issues as a team are far more pressing than what Toronto has gone through over this recent stretch. Cleveland already has 3 blown leads this season, and they still lack that killer instinct championship-quality teams have.
Monday night, they dropped one to the Oklahoma City Thunder, led by a 43-point performance from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. However, Donovan Mitchell once again came up short when the lights were bright, and their frontcourt lacked aggression in the second half, as they always do.
The Cavaliers are the same team, just with a new look
Technically speaking, one of the Cavs' three blown leads this season was that Monday night loss to OKC, but I’ll give them a pass because it was a five-point lead and that game was super back and forth. Maybe they can also get a pass for their 29-point blown lead in their season opener to the 76ers because it was their first game of the season.
But the game that stands out like a sore thumb came against the Atlanta Hawks, where they blew a 15-point lead.
That game summed up who the Cavs are as a team. After jumping out to a hot 31-16 start, the Hawks came back in the second quarter and punched Cleveland in the face with a mean overhand of a run. Did the Cavs push back or counterpunch? No. They looked completely overwhelmed by Atlanta's second-quarter run, and although they eventually fought back, it was too little too late. The second the Hawks' run started, everyone on the Cavs looked shell-shocked, from Mitchell to Evan Mobley, James Harden, and even head coach Kenny Atkinson. No one on their bench had an answer.
That’s my issue with the Cavs: any time they face adversity, they just seem to give up. And even if they overcome adversity for a moment, it takes the whole gas tank, and then they still can’t close things out with a win. Unlike the Raptors, who say what you want about the results of their last two games while in LA, they fought all game both nights and never gave up.
Quick little side rant, and this is a personal one because Evan Mobley was one of the first prospects I really fell in love with when I started getting interested in player evaluation.
He had it all: athleticism, size, skill, and upside. To me, he had the potential to be a baby Kevin Garnett. But every year we wait for that offensive leap to finally come or for him to take that step into being an assertive player on the offensive end and an imposing force on the inside, and it never happens. That’s not to say he isn’t a great player because his defensive production speaks for itself, but I truly don’t think this Cavs core will ever compete for a championship without him taking a leap.
When you factor in the Cavs' lack of toughness and inability to handle adversity, along with no leap from Mobley and the Peyton Watson signing looking meh so far, there’s no reason to be scared of this team. Is there a world where they finish ahead of the Raptors and piece things together for a strong regular season? 100 percent. But that’s exactly it with this Cleveland core: they can put up results in the regular season, but come playoff time, they go back into their shell like a turtle.
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