Cleveland Cavaliers visits Toronto Raptors on Wednesday with the luxury of being able to experiment with features that they hope will lead to a long playoffs.
“It’s a bit my DNA,” said Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson after his team’s home victory 128-107 over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday. “I like to change defense. I like to give different looks. I think with this team they were the kind of a basic coverage team last year, and I just feel that you have to practice (changes) in live games.
“I love Ty Lue (Line),“ You work with an end play about the playoffs a day. You always work with something because you never know when you will need it. “But I really think you have to do it in live games, not just in practice.”
Cavaliers, who leads the eastern conference with 5 1/2 matches, has won their first three meetings with Raptors this season.
Toronto finished a four-game losing line on Tuesday when it ended a three-match road trip with a victory 106-103 over the Philadelphia 76ers. Scottie Barnes led Raptors with 33 points and 10 returns.
Communication about the court is one thing that requires Cavalier’s attention when looking for their fourth straight victory on Wednesday.
“That’s because we do so many different things,” said Donovan Mitchell, who logged 23 points and eight assists against Minnesota. “I think the biggest thing to challenge now, and I challenged everyone just like” we have to communicate. “
“This is what we use the regular season for. Of course we play to win, but we play to find out things and grow. When you have not done anything we do not exercise so much, so we have to find out ways to try it. ”
Cavaliers hopes that the latest addition of De’andre Hunter will improve his defense.
“We are eighth now (in defensive ranking),” said Atkinson. “I think the players are talking about top five. I know that was their message. These guys want feedback.” Where are we? What is our rating? “And we’re eighth.
“We’re good, but we’re not good. They were part of that thought process. Can you help us? Can his size, physics, position size, gadability – all small clichés that are true – he can help to drive us to the next level? ”
Hunter had 12 points in 23 minutes during his first match with Cleveland on Monday.
Raptors followed up Tuesday on one of their trade death release from last week and signed Brandon Ingram to a three -year, $ 120 million contract extension.
Ingram arrived from New Orleans Pelicans on February 6 for Bruce Brown, Kelly Olylyk and two drafts of elections.
Ingram remains out because of a left ankle that has held him on the page since the beginning of December. RJ Barrett (return to competition terms) and Jakob Poeltl (HIP) did not play in Philadelphia either.
Toronto led 26-18 after a block, which made a difference.
“Our team during the first quarter was outstanding defensively,” said Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic. “I think it set a tone for us because of great defensive effort, we could stop and get rebounds that enabled us to run and find our rhythm early in the game.”
Barnes had one of their better games.
“I thought Scottie throughout the game was really, really aggressive, playing with a lot of power that went down, being able to finish at the edge and at the same time get to the free throw line pretty much and play,” Rajakovic said.
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