[Wolverine Studios] We Simmed It – ECF : Cleveland vs Toronto

[GM Games 252]

Following up on yesterday’s blog post predicting the Golden State vs Oklahoma City series here’s a look at how Draft Day Sports: Pro Basketball 2016 sees the Cleveland vs Toronto series shaking out. NOTE : since Valanciunas is injured we simmed this series without him available – just to see if it would make a difference we simmed the series again with him missing just game 1 and 2 and the results of each game in the series were identical.

GAME 1

Game 1 was an exciting one from the start. Both teams kept it close through one and then Toronto opened up a seven point lead at the break proving that even without JV they were going to be able to matchup fine with Cleveland. DeRozan was terrific as he would finish with 39 points (hey nobody ever accused J.R. Smith of playing defense) but it was not enough. LeBron wasn’t losing game 1 and helped get both Kyrie and Matthew Dellavedova going in the third. Irving would finish with 26 while the Delly served up 18. LeBron finishes with 20/7, 2 steals and a block. The game would remain close until the final minute when Kevin Love would hit a huge three to put it away.

Kevin Love ices game 1 with a dagger three

 

GAME 2 (CLE leads 1-0)

Game 2 was over from the start as Cleveland jumped out to a 22-12 1st quarter and never looked back. LeBron was fantastic again with 25 points and shooting better than 62% from the floor. Toronto got nothing from anyone and eventually both teams just packed it in and called it a day.

It was all Cleveland all day in game 2

GAME 3 (CLE leads 2-0)

Game 3 proves Toronto does have some fight in them. Kyle Lowry finally stepped up and produced a monster 27/8 with 2 steals and a block in 40 minutes. Bismack Biyombo continued to adequately fill in for Valanciunas with a nice line of 6 points, 9 rebounds, 4 steals and 2 blocks – his defense was key down the stretch as Cleveland put together a run at the end as was Demarre Carroll’s who had 6 steals. James had 22 and Love went for 11 and 15 boards with Irving adding only 15 points. It looks like the key for Toronto to win is going to be forcing a big turnover margin.

Kyle Lowry leads Toronto to a game 3 win

GAME 4 (CLE leads 2-1)

Bad shooting seems to be a disease running through this series and when a team catches it – good night. This game was alot like game 2 except flipped. LeBron did his thing but nobody else did much. Toronto again won the turnover battle and the series shifts back to Cleveland. In a seven game series it would seem improbable that Toronto would win but if its a best of three essentially anything is possible but they need to win game 5 because they’re not going to win game 7 in Cleveland.

Toronto evens the series in a blowout

GAME 5 (series tied 2-2)

You know what this series needs? (Some offense?, a close game?, a steel cage?). Nope. Alternate jerseys! We decided to roll out both teams alternate unis for this one in hopes it would spark an interesting game. Lowry and DeRozan combined for 53 of the Toronto 95 (that means the rest of the team only offered up 42 points) and that’s just not enough to beat anyone good. LeBron went for a balanced 26/6/6 line, Irving added 22/5/5 with 3 steals and Tristan Thompson made an appearance with 12 and 13 boards with 4 steals. Toronto did not win the turnover battle this game which leaves them little chance of winning. When you don’t have more than two options for putting the ball in the basket you better play some hellacious defense and they didn’t.

Kyrie Irving sparks the game 5 victory

GAME 6 (CLE leads 3-2)

Game 6 was the perfect ending for this series – a total clunker. Toronto only trailed by 4 at the break but LeBron and Irving were just too much to handle. LeBron had his most dominant performance with a 31 and 10 double double while Kyrie was no slouch at 24 and 6 dimes. Lowry had nearly as many turnovers (9) as points (12) and as we identified earlier in the series Toronto had to win the turnover battle in order to stand a chance. They didn’t and again didn’t get much offensive output against a stout Cleveland defense and that was all she wrote as Cleveland will win in six games.

LeBron saved his best to close out game 6

FINAL OBSERVATIONS

Well this series wasn’t nearly as fun to watch play out as Golden State vs Oklahoma City. In fact it was downright boring. There were moments of intrigue here and there in games 1 and 3 but to be honest I’m surprised it went six games. Both teams shot poorly on the whole and while Toronto has been able to survive the first two rounds (in 7 games both times) they did so against teams with one really good scorer (George, Wade) so their 1-2 punch of Lowry and DeRozan was enough (barely). Cleveland is a different animal – not only do they have the best player in the East in LeBron but Irving and Love can both score not to mention the ability for a guy like Smith or Delly to catch fire. Even Thompson can put up some points now and then.

I thought maybe Valanciunas would make a difference as a scorer but when using him the results did not change (and I had the AI try to cap him around 28 minutes both to be true to life and to simulate him coming back from injury in game 3). I think the game did identify a key in the series though and that is Toronto is going to have to play some nasty defense which they are capable of and really try and grind this out if they want to win. I don’t think there is anyway they can win a seven game series without some killer defensive efforts.

I hope you enjoyed this segment and I look forward to doing some more in the future. If you did I want to give you a special chance to own Draft Day Sports: Pro Basketball 2016 at a discount. Just click on this link for our webstore, add DDS:PB 2016 to your cart and enter the code WESIMMEDIT for a 20% discount- the code will work through 5/20/2016. Be sure to follow along our blog and follow us on our social media outlets for more cool features like this one!

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