The Toronto Raptors backed up their talent advantage with a solid overall strategy from coach Nick Nurse in Game 1 on Monday. Defensively, the Raptors focused on stopping Caris LeVert, and took advantage of the wide-open threes created by their aggression to get in the paint and collapse the Nets’ zone defense. They also saw a lot of daylight thanks to the extreme drop coverage that Jarrett Allen was playing in the middle.
On the other side of the court, coach Jacque Vaughn concentrated on stopping Pascal Siakam and struggled to get his team to keep up with the Raptors’ scoring barrage.