The Cavs and Raptors tip off at 8:30 PM on Wednesday night for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
The Cavs are the heavy favorite, but Toronto is nothing to scoff at.
One of the keys to the series will be who wins the free-throw battle.
Toronto is a team that is known for attacking the rim, especially with their two All-Star guards, Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan.
Both guards have the ability to drive and finish, but they’re also known for drawing fouls and converting at the free-throw line.
Lowry averaged 5 free throws made per game in the regular season, shooting 81 percent from the line. He was fourth among point guards and 14th overall in free throws made per game.
DeRozan averaged 7 free throws made per game, which ranked third in the entire NBA. He shot 86 percent from the line.
In the regular season, the Raptors averaged 20.8 free throws made per game, which was second-most in the NBA. They shot 78 percent from the line as a team.
The playoffs have been no different. In fact, their free throw shooting has been a crucial component of why they were able to survive through 14 brutal games and advance to the Conference Finals.
In the 2015-2016 Postseason, Toronto is averaging 19.5 free throws made per game, which is fourth-most in the league. The only team still standing that averages more free throws per game is the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Toronto is shooting 74 percent from the line in the playoffs.
Compare that to the Cavaliers.
In the regular season, Cleveland shot 75 percent from the line, which ranked 21st. Toronto ranked 12th in regular season free throw percentage.
The Cavs only averaged 16.3 free throws made per game in the regular season, ranked 26th. Toronto’s 20.8 was ranked second in the league.
In the playoffs, the Cavs are averaging just 13 free throws made per game, which ranks 15 out of 16 teams that reached the postseason.
The Cavs are shooting 69 percent from the line in the postseason, which ranks 13th out of 16.
None of this is to say that the Cavs don’t have advantages in other areas, but the free-throw battle will be something to keep an eye on in this series.
Cavs Shooting Guard J.R. Smith even made mention of this fact at Tuesday morning’s shootaround, specifically referring to the challenge of guarding DeRozan in the series and said, “DeMar likes to put the ball on the floor. He likes to attack the rim and tries to get to the free throw line.”
When speaking about the key to defending DeRozan, Smith said: “More than anything staying down, not fouling him (or) bailing him out.”
Smith has somewhat of a history of committing fouls in crunch time, whether some of that is due to his reputation or whether they’re all legitimate fouls, so that matchup will be interesting to watch to say the least.
When the Cavs played the Raptors in the regular season, Toronto won two of the three games.
It’s worth noting that Toronto drew more fouls than Cleveland in all three meetings, but the two times in which Toronto was victorious, the Raptors used the free throw line and getting the Cavs in foul trouble as a way to get momentum on their side.
In the first meeting in November, Cleveland committed 20 personal fouls, opposed to Toronto’s 15. The Cavs had three players with four fouls or more in the game, including Kevin Love, who had five in the game. The Raptors shot 22 free throws in the game opposed to Cleveland’s 16, and although Cleveland was more efficient from the line, the Raptors only had one player with four fouls, while the rest of the team had two or less.
The Raptors won that game 103-99 and it’s safe to say Cleveland’s foul trouble had a lot to do with it.
The next time they faced each other in January, the Cavs committed 22 personal fouls opposed to the Raptors’ 19.
The Cavs won the free throw battle, hitting 23-of-26 shots at the line, while Toronto made 20-of-29.
Cleveland won that game by 22.
The third and final meeting of the regular season was the night that Lowry had one of the best games of his life, scoring a career-high 43 points en route to a 99-97 victory in Toronto.
Lowry, alone, made 11-of-15 free throw attempts, and forced Kyrie Irving, Iman Shumpert and Matthew Dellavedova to play a physical brand of basketball.
The Cavs were called for 26 personal fouls in that game, opposed to Toronto’s 23. Toronto shot 19-for-26 from the line, while Cleveland shot 15-of-21.
The moral of the story for the Cavs is, whoever is guarding Lowry and DeRozan needs to make sure they limit the fouls and don’t let Toronto get to the line often.
The Cavs can also use this battle to their advantage if they decide to go toe-for-toe and match Toronto’s physicality, as DeRozan and Lowry are both near the top of the league in personal fouls committed per game.
The Raptors love to play a physical game and while Cleveland will be looking to keep it an uptempo pace, Toronto could benefit from slowing the game down and having their two guards, who were near the top of the league in free throws made, keep the game close by converting shots at the charity stripe.
Of course there are countless other factors that go into this matchup, but the free throw battle is one area that I will be keeping a close eye on during the Conference Finals.
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