The Cleveland Cavaliers visit the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday with the luxury of being able to experiment with moves they hope will lead to a long playoff run.
“It’s a little bit my DNA,” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said after his team’s 128-107 home win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday. “I like changing defenses. I like giving different looks. I think with this team, they were kind of a basic coverage team last year, and I just feel like you’ve got to practice (changes) in live play.
“I love the Ty Lue (line), ‘You work on a playoff adjustment a day. You’re always working on something because you never know when you’re going to need it.’ But I really believe you’ve got to do it in live play, not just in practice.”
The Cavaliers, who lead the Eastern Conference by 5 1/2 games, have won their first three meetings with the Raptors this season.
Toronto ended a four-game losing streak on Tuesday when it completed a three-game road trip with a 106-103 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers. Scottie Barnes led the Raptors with 33 points and 10 rebounds.
Communication on the court is one thing requiring the Cavaliers’ attention as they look for their fourth straight win on Wednesday.
“It’s because we’re doing 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 everybody just like, ‘We have to communicate.’
“This is what we’re using the regular season for. Obviously, we’re playing to win, but we’re playing to figure things out and grow. When you haven’t done something, we don’t practice as much, so we have to figure out ways to try it.”
The Cavaliers hope the recent addition of De’Andre Hunter will improve their defense.
“We’re eighth now (in defensive ranking),” Atkinson said. “I think the players talk about top five. I know that was their message. These guys want feedback. ‘Where are we? What’s our grade?’ And we’re eighth.
“We’re good, but we’re not great. De’Andre was part of that thought process. Can you help us? Can his size, physicality, positional size, switchability — all the little cliches that are true — can he help push us to the next level?”
Hunter had 12 points in 23 minutes during his first game with Cleveland on Monday.
The Raptors followed up Tuesday on one of their trade-deadline moves from last week, signing Brandon Ingram to a three-year, $120 million contract extension.
Ingram arrived from the New Orleans Pelicans on Feb. 6 for Bruce Brown, Kelly Olynyk and two draft picks.
Ingram remains out due to a left ankle sprain that has kept him sidelined since early December. RJ Barrett (return to competition condition) and Jakob Poeltl (hip) also did not play at Philadelphia.
Toronto led 26-18 after one quarter, which made a difference.
“Our team in the first quarter was outstanding defensively,” Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic said. “I think that set a tone for us because of great defensive effort, we were able to get stops and get rebounds that allowed us to run and find our rhythm early in the game.”
Barnes had one of his better games.
“I thought Scottie during the whole game was really, really aggressive, playing with a lot of force going downhill, being able to finish at the rim and at the same time getting to the free-throw line quite a bit and playmaking,” Rajakovic said.
