Toronto Raptors: What's the best way to defend the Cleveland Cavaliers?

With a playoff matchup almost a guarantee, the Toronto Raptors need to devise a game plan capable of limiting LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Even with a better bench, the No. 1 seed, more ball movement and 3-pointers, one thing within the Toronto Raptors organization has remained the same: They can’t stop LeBron James.

LeBron continued his dominance over Toronto last Wednesday with 35 points, 17 assists and zero turnovers, becoming the first player in NBA history with such a stat line.

The Raptors have now lost eight of their last nine games in Cleveland, a figure that’s going to have to change if they want any chance of advancing to the Finals.

Equally disturbing for Toronto was LeBron’s supporting cast. Kevin Love had 23 points and 12 rebounds in just his second game back from a left hand injury, and George Hill broke out of his shell for 22 points after failing to crack double-digits in four of the last five games.

Without Kyrie Irving or Isaiah Thomas, the Cleveland Cavaliers don’t have anyone who can consistently relieve James of his ball-handling duties, meaning that if guys are going to score, more often than not it’s going to be off LeBron.

Moving forward, Toronto can’t allow both James and his supporting cast to play well. It gives Cleveland more weapons on offense, which makes it harder to defend.

Within the intricate schemes of an NBA defense are two general ways to defend a team led by a singular great player.

Option A is to limit the superstar player, in this case, LeBron, and dare the role players to beat you.

This includes trapping the pick-and-roll and bringing over help on drives even if it means leaving elite shooters open. The point is to limit the one player in the hope that his teammates can’t step up. Conventional defense goes out the window.

(Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images) /

This wouldn’t work against the likes of the Houston Rockets or Golden State Warriors because both teams have multiple players capable of carrying the scoring load. Nor would this work against a Cavs team with Irving, which is what made them so difficult to beat, but LeBron is now the only one on the Cavaliers capable of carrying the offensive load at an elite level on a consistent basis.

This scheme is obviously easier said than done, especially with LeBron’s ability to both score and facilitate, but it puts the pressure on guys who aren’t used to handling such a large offensive burden, which could prove successful depending on the players.

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Forcing guys like Rodney Hood and Jordan Clarkson, who have little to no playoff experience, make big plays consistently in the conference finals is a much safer bet for the Raptors instead of letting the guy who’s been to seven straight NBA Finals orchestrate the offense.

Option B is to let the star player get all the shots he wants, while at the same time shutting down everyone around him.

This is the exact opposite of option A. Instead of helping on drives and pick-and-rolls, defenders should be sticking to the shooters like glue. That one guy is going to have to drop 50 if they want to win.

Case in point:

In the first round of the 2011 Eastern Conference playoffs, the Atlanta Hawks featuring Joe Johnson, Al Horford and Josh Smith faced off against the Orlando Magic led by Dwight Howard.

Atlanta used strategy B to perfection. Howard averaged 27.0 points on 63.0 percent shooting along with 4.5 offensive rebounds per game. The man could do no wrong.

The same could not be said for his teammates.

In the six-game series, Hedo Turkoglu averaged 9.2 points on 29.4 percent shooting. Jameer Nelson averaged 13.2 points on 37.8 percent shooting. Jason Richardson averaged 10.0 points on 33.3 percent shooting.

Orlando’s strategy was to use Dwight’s gravitational pull near the basket to draw Atlanta’s defenders in, thereby freeing up open looks for their shooters, but the Hawks didn’t bite. Howard got whatever he wanted down low, but the other guys simply weren’t getting the open shots they were so accustomed to, and the Hawks won the series.

This strategy works best if the team applying it is a well-rounded team that doesn’t rely on any single player, similar to that Atlanta team. That series saw five Hawks players average double figures, led by Jamal Crawford with 20.8 per game and Joe Johnson at 18.0 per game.

If a team attempts to deploy that tactic with a similar roster makeup of those they’re trying to defend, it becomes a star vs. star battle which, depending on which star you have, could become a disadvantage.

In a hypothetical yet very possible matchup between the Raptors and Cavaliers, which would be more effective for Toronto? Is it better to let LeBron get whatever he wants and give the other guys nothing, or would it be sufficient for the Raptors to limit LeBron and dare his supporting cast to beat them?

All things considered, option A seems like the better fit against Cleveland.

(Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images) /

Getting the ball out of LeBron’s hands is always a good start for any opponent. The man is probably playing the best basketball offensively of his career and there really doesn’t seem to be anything that can stop him.

Forcing the Cavs to rely on streaky scorers like Hood, Clarkson, and J.R. Smith could backfire on the Raptors if they get hot, but when the other option is letting the best player in the game get on a roll, Toronto should play the percentages and go with the former.

Option B could work, simply because over a seven-game series, a 32-year-old LeBron in year 15 could probably handle that type of burden for a few games, but as they go deeper into the series, the lack of production out of his teammates would wear him down physically and mentally.

Plus, with a more well-rounded attack, Toronto has to make those Cavs players defend, which is a lot harder when they’re not in a rhythm offensively.

Then again, we’ve seen LeBron win games pretty much by himself. Even if the odds are stacked against James, betting against him doesn’t seem wise.

Either way, LeBron James makes everything incredibly difficult, and it’ll be up to head coach Dwane Casey to figure out the strategy best suited to stop the best player in the world.

Next: NBA Rookie of the Year ladder - Week 24

Good luck with that.

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Toronto Raptors: What’s the best way to defend the Cleveland Cavaliers?

By Daniel Lubofsky | Mar 26, 2018

With a playoff matchup almost a guarantee, the Toronto Raptors need to devise a game plan capable of limiting LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.