Toronto Raptors: 3 takeaways from Game 4 vs. Cavaliers

3. The bench underperformed all series

The majority of the blame will fall on Lowry, DeRozan and head coach Dwane Casey, and rightfully so. However, one of Toronto’s greatest strengths this season was its bench, so it’d be wrong to neglect pointing out how unprepared the second unit was for this series against Cleveland.

Of course, that isn’t too surprising. Their leading sixth man, Fred VanVleet, has been in the league for two seasons. The same goes for one of their chief LeBron defenders, Pascal Siakam, as well as Jakob Poeltl. Delon Wright and the unused Norman Powell were only third-year players, while starting wing OG Anunoby was a rookie.

Many wondered whether inexperience would catch up with a Raptors bench that led the league in plus/minus and finished fifth in scoring during the regular season. That happened in a big way in the postseason, particularly in the Cavs series.

Though the Raptors led all playoff teams in bench scoring during the conference semis (39.3 points per game), they posted a -4.9 point differential, which ranked dead last among the remaining eight teams. Meanwhile, Cleveland’s second unit ranked second with a +1.5 for the series.

Obviously the Cavs don’t utilize their bench as much, understandably riding LeBron and the starters for most of the way. Unfortunately, this negated one of Toronto’s greatest strengths and it’s a big reason the Raptors are going home without a single win over Cleveland to show for it.