The preview that is written after game 1 has played is not worth its salt, but here we are looking at the rest of the first round matchup between the third placed Cavs and the �missing one important piece� Raptors, who might look back on this season as having one too many trades. 

Cleveland Cavaliers

58-24

The Cavs were unlucky to not have the tie breaker against the Bucks, as they slipped into third with an even number of wins for the season. They�ve brought together a strong starting line-up who are missing a key cog in their rotation, Brandon Clarke. With Clarke injured they have to utilise Daniel Gafford and Isaiah Hartenstein as their starting front court and then shift their power forwards around to take spot minutes at the 5, such as Jalen Smith. Which presents a challenge when a good big man rotation is so important. 

By starting their two centres, they do look to shift Kyle Kuzma to the bench as an energy guy, which provides opportunities for taking advantage of a Toronto bench who are allergic to scoring.

Toronto Raptors

49-33

The Raptors are down a big man for the whole playoffs and that is the story of their season. With Zion they are a near unstoppable force, without him they are heavily reliant on a few adequate players. Dejounte Murray is step up from adequate and is a solid guard that can do a bit of everything, which is what you want from you point, while Caldwell-Pope is a solid rotation guy. They need some big games out of Ayton to really try and turn the tides in this series to their favour, but have yet to find the rhythm to deliver consistent wins against really good teams.

They might look back at the season and regret a trade here or there, Whether its moving off Bam, or shifting Jevon Carter and Bismark Biyombo for seconds, or maybe their biggest one, shifting away from Jimmy Butler. Or maybe it is the whole player flow from Bam to Smart/Anuoby to Butler and then on to Murray. The sands were shifting in Toronto all season, hopefully they can find some solid ground over the next few weeks.

 The Match Ups

Centre: Meyers Leonard vs Isaiah Hartenstein

Here is a picture of Meyers Leonard and Isaiah Hartenstein. Or is it? Here is a test, could you tell who is who in a crowd?  The only thing that really stands out between them is that Leonard in theory has a bit more range in his shooting, while Hartenstein hits the offensive glass slightly better. Whether 2k recency bias may favour the big German, because Leonard has only just returned to the league.

I guess the less said about Meyers �K*** Bitch� Leonard facing off against a player whose surname includes �stein� at the end the better, but it had to be said.

Hartenstein wins the battle and teaches a lesson to all people who use derogatory terms and supposedly don�t know the meaning off.

Power Forward: Ayton v Gafford

The beauty about this match up is that it should be a big win for the offensively powered big man. Gafford is an ok player, he steps it up on defence and can really hit the glass, but against a well paid former number 1 overall pick, you would think he shouldn�t stand a chance. Sure Ayton hasn�t been as dominant as one might expect, and whether that is a function of the NBA team fit and his role there, or whether he just only steps it up once every 6 games.

I think the best plan to get the most out of Ayton is get him to avoid the defensive big man and try get him matched up against Hartenstein instead, but that might be an adjustment for game 2, as game 1 saw him perform worse in most stat categories than his opposite number. I think Gafford has won the battle but he wont win the war here. Ayton to step it up for the rest of the series

 Small Forward: Bazley v Bridges

It was too hard to find a photo of Darius Bazley facing off against Mikal Bridges, the best I could get is a shared team mate in Chris Paul. Do you know why? Bridges defends the really good players on the opposition, and Bazley, well he occasionally plays basketball these days. I wish Bazley was better, and I�m glad Bridges is really good, but this match up is so overwhelming in favour of Bridges its not really fair. I had hoped that Bazley was going to break out the year, but as the year went on, the disappointment set in. Maybe next year he can be a contributor to this team.

While Bridges numbers don�t pop off the page, at least he is efficient and a great defender in 2k. Bazley puts up similar counting stats but is a step below. As already covered, Bridges will romp this home.

Shooting Guard: Caldwell-Pope V Jrue

Another match up in favour of Cleveland here. Jrue is another really good defender, and he can score in so many ways efficiently. Caldwell-Pope is kinda like Jrue lite, just a bit taller. I don�t think the height will make up enough difference to worry anyone, or maybe they play each other to a stale mate, Both guys are really good 2-guards, who will be key pieces in getting their teams the win.

I think Jrue gets it here as he has the quickness edge and really elite defensive prowess which fits the style of the Cavs perfectly.

Point Guard: Dejounte Murray v CJ McCollum

The premier match up of the teams. Here both players are critical to their teams success. CJ is critical to the Cavs success as he is the Ying to their Yang. He is offense first where the rest of the squad is all about stopping their man. Dejounte is one of these guys who is ready to take the next step up the star ladder, and he is performing like it in the NSL. As a taller player with super defensive stats you would think he suits the Cavs mentality more than CJ, but those factors might be the key to shutting down/slowing down the key offensive weapon of the opposition.

I think while the Ying and Yang of CJ might help the team overall the individual one on one battle will belong to Dejounte because he has the skills to nullify CJ.

Bench Mob: Wright, Okoro, Finney-Smith and Carey Jnr v Jalen Smith, Kuzma, Osman

As was alluded to earlier the benefit of having Kuzma off the bench is critical to winning the bench wars. Jalen Smith shouldn�t be overlooked, he was earmarked to have a bigger season at the beginning of the year, but never really took the leap, he still shows to be a rebounder that can fill in for the big man rotation, and then there is Osman, who has a great quickness/height mix to befuddle the opposition. On the Toronto bench though we have some good role players who can step up every now and then to fill in for the starters, but none are really putting many points on the board, and when there are bench heavy units on the floor it really becomes a challenge to score for the Raptors.

Prediction

The big out is Zion, and if he was healthy we may be looking at this at a completely different angle. Unfortunately for the Raptors I think it will be a quick and painful exit from the playoffs falling 4-0 to the less slightly undermanned Cavaliers

The Cavs win just about every battle at every position, if Toronto can find a spot for Ayton to succeed while shutting down McCollum and playing Jrue to a draw they might be able to steal a game, but the weak point is unfortunately that small forward position. Is Josh Green playable there? Could that be a wild card, could Okoro do much? Can Finney-Smith be a stop gap in the starting spot and Rivers comes in as a super sub to try turn the tide? The lack of scoring on the bench is really hard to overcome when faced with the well balanced Cavs guys.

Good luck to both teams