TORONTO — Much like Pascal Siakam’s NBA career, which began with a start in his first-ever regular season game, the Raptors will not be easing into the 2016-17 season.
Following a thorough 109-91 win over the Detroit Pistons in Wednesday night’s opener, in which Siakam more than held his own, the Raptors take on the defending NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers.
For the most part, this is the exact same Cavs squad that disposed of the Raptors in last spring’s Eastern Conference Final in six games. Certainly, the head of the snake of that most formidable opponent hasn’t changed.
“It’s a good opportunity to go against the best team, in my mind, in the league,” Raptors head coach Dwane Casey said following practice Thursday. “They have every weapon that you could look for. The best player in the world, one of the best rosters put together in the world, so it’s a good test for us.”
The best player, of course, is LeBron James, who, at the age of 31 (he turns 32 in December), is showing few signs, if any, of slowing down.
If he is losing anything on the physical side of the game, the four-time MVP is more than able to make it up on the mental side.
“LeBron has grown,” Casey said when asked about James’ evolution as a player. “First, he was just playing on athletic instincts. Then you see him going to that coach on the floor (role): calling out your plays, telling his teammates what to do, quarterbacking. When he is doing that and playing, he’s dangerous, and that’s why he’s the best in the league right now.
“He does everything,” Casey added. “He is a leader, he does it by example. He plays as hard as anyone. From my understanding, he practices as hard as anyone. Your team is usually going to go the way your star player goes, and that’s why he is who he is and why the Cavs are who they are.”
No one player or team ever shuts down James, but he can be slowed. The first level of defence from the Raptors’ side will be DeMarre Carroll, the guy brought in specifically for these defensive assignments and one who relishes the shot to go up against the very best in the world every chance he gets.
Carroll figures he was playing at about 50 per cent capacity last spring, when he took on the challenge of trying to limit the best player in the world during that six-game series. With a full off-season of healing under his belt, Carroll figures he’s at about 80-90 per cent now.
“I feel like I should be 100 per cent very soon,” Carroll said. “It’s all about rhythm. I won’t say I’m 100 per cent until I’ve got my rhythm down, knocking down my shots and diving for balls like I normally do.”
You have to go all the way back to the Eastern Conference Final of 2015, when Carroll was still a member of the Atlanta Hawks, for the last time he was at full strength going against James.
And that didn’t last the full first game of that series, as Carroll injured his left knee going up for a basket. He gamely hobbled through the rest of the series, but was nothing close to the dominant defender he had been before the injury.
Friday’s match-up will be a test for the entire Raptors defence, which was rather spotty through the pre-season but looked to be in better shape in the opener. Casey cautioned Carroll is going to need help, as anyone would, guarding James.
“It takes a whole team,” Casey said. “One guy is not going to stop (James). It has got to be five guys tied together understanding timing, when to come, when to rotate, when to get there. It’s going to be huge and it won’t be just the guy guarding him. It’s going to be the guy coming off Tristan Thompson and the guy coming from the elbow to help, from the weak side. And then the rotations out on the weak side are going to be huge. So it is a timing, more of a zoned-up situation to guard him.
“You can put different bodies in front of him and he is going to find different ways to attack it. The first pressure, the first line of defence is the guy guarding him. Then the second and third and fourth line have to be ready to come in and do their jobs.”
Neither team is significantly different from the two teams that took the floor last spring. The Cavs have added another floor spreader and shooter in Mike Dunleavy. The Raptors will have a different face at power forward — possibly Siakam again to start, but not necessarily so.
“That could change depending on the (opponent),” Casey said. “It could change (Friday) night. But again, we are going to hold that card close to our vest as we go. Try to keep teams from game-planning for a young guy. Not to be evasive … but yes, I am.”