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TSN Raptors Reporter

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CLEVELAND - No player in the NBA, and perhaps in league history, can disrupt an opposing game plan quite like LeBron James.

Dwane Casey's pre-game audible, opting to dust off the sparingly used Landry Fields and insert him into the starting lineup, came as mild surprise, but perhaps it shouldn't have been so shocking given the imposing force he was tasked with guarding.

"He is who we thought he was," Casey said of James, who had a game-high 35 points in the Cavaliers' comeback victory over Toronto on Tuesday. "It's not a surprise. He's one of the best players in the league, or the best player, arguably. So he did what he was supposed to do. I thought we had him under control most of the night."

Fields, with the assistance of James Johnson, had James under control, as much as one can possibly have him under control, until the fourth quarter.

The Raptors had led by as many as 14 point on the night, 10 points early in the final frame before Cleveland clamped down on defence and James started making big plays on both ends of the floor. Toronto shot 30 per cent from the field, hitting one of six three-point attempts and scoring just 13 points while James poured in 10 of his own, including the go-ahead trey with 48 seconds left.

They had entered the game with the NBA's best fourth-quarter point differential. The loss snapped their streak of 39 consecutive wins when leading after three quarters.

"I thought our guys battled, fought, controlled the game for most of the game but you've got to close it out," Casey said - his team had squandered a 17-point advantage to Denver the night prior before stealing a win in overtime. "That's where we've got to get better. We had some crucial turnovers, crucial rebounds that we didn't get at the end of the game and that's the name of the game. When you're playing playoff basketball and you're trying to be an elite team you've got to be able to make those plays and tonight we didn't."

Their series with the Cavs has certainly had a playoff feel, in part because the two teams have seen each other three times in 18 days, an unusual wrinkle in the NBA's regular season schedule. The Raptors won the first meeting in Cleveland on Nov. 22 and the Cavs haven't lost a game since - winners of eight in a row. In Friday's rematch, LeBron and company handed Toronto its most lopsided defeat of the campaign. This time around, Casey pulled out all the stops, hence the late lineup change, and it nearly paid off.

He nearly let the cat out of the bag.

"One guy can't guard [LeBron James]," Casey said ahead of Tuesday's rubber match. "You're going to have to have a team concept. That one guy guarding him has to be disciplined and work within what we're trying to do as a team. 

"He can't go rogue out on his own," he continued, before stumbling, appearing to misplace the name of Terrence Ross. "So whoever guards him, whether it's James [Johnson], or... or... or..."

"Terrence?," I suggested.

"Terrence, thank you... Or whoever guards him has to be disciplined in what they're doing and not go rogue."

This has been a frequent dilemma for Casey - unwaveringly honest as a man, it paints him to lie, but understandably guarded as a head coach. How much should he reveal to the media when he addresses them 90 minutes ahead of tip-off, knowing whatever information he discloses - injuries, lineup changes - will be leaked on Twitter in the blink of an eye, becoming available to the opposition? He's not required to give anything away until he fills out his lineup card just before the game.

So when he's asked about his roster or rotation he smirks a mischievous smirk. He knows the question is coming. If he's feeling generous he may even throw the assembled media a bone and volunteer some intel unprompted.

He can't tell a lie. On this night, he didn't have to. Nobody asked, not directly, so he kept it to himself. An unlikely ace in the hole, something he used in the playoffs last spring when Fields stepped in to stymie Joe Johnson and the Nets in Game 2.

"Honestly, I just wanted to make things difficult, to kind of switch it up on [James], make him think about me more than anything else," said Fields, who found out he was making the spot start earlier in the day during a late afternoon walkthrough. "It didn't go so well if you look at the stat sheet. He still played well and they ended up winning but that was just my whole mindset going in."

Despite the result, Casey made the right call.

Greivis Vasquez had started five straight games in place of the injured DeMar DeRozan but was under the weather and limited in his return to the bench on Tuesday. Terrence Ross, a promising but inexperienced defender giving up size and strength to James, had more ups than downs against the four-time MVP in the first two meetings. Johnson was re-acquired for match-ups like this one, but got caught up in a one-on-one battle with James in Toronto on Friday.

What Fields lacks in athleticism, in comparison to Johnson, he makes up for in discipline, which was a prerequisite as Casey outlined before the game. He's a smart player, moves well without the ball, knows his limitations on both ends of the floor and operates within them.

By the end of the first quarter he had logged 11 minutes, exactly half his total through the team's first 21 games of the campaign. Entering Tuesday's contest, Fields appeared in just six games, playing less than a minute in two of them. But he was effective and helped Toronto get off to a 33- 26 lead, converting both of his looks near the basket and making James work on the other end.

"It can be tough," said the five-year vet, who hadn't played since mid-November. "When I found out [about the start] it was a lot of emotions and thoughts went through my mind but, honestly, I went back to the room and prayed on it, kind of mellowed out, got here, shot the ball well and was doing well in warm ups."

Fields made a couple of emergency starts last season - the first coming a year ago Monday when he stepped in for Rudy Gay against the Lakers, the night the trade was consummated. He made his last start on Mar. 2. Replacing the injured Terrence Ross, he was effective in a win over the Warriors, hitting four of his five shots and grabbing six rebounds in 25 minutes.

Starting Fields allowed Casey to go back to his regular rotation off the bench, although Vasquez was limited to just 12 minutes. It also took some pressure off Ross as a defender, allowing him to thrive on the offensive end, where he put up a team-high 18 points. Johnson was also effective, particularly off the bench. But neither he nor Fields could solve the problem that was LeBron James down the stretch.

"He makes it tough for you because he's seen everything," Casey had said before the game. "Whatever you throw at him multiple times he'll exploit it. And that's why he is who he is. He's arguably the best player in the league and probably the most cerebral player in the league when it comes to reading situations on both sides of the ball. That makes it difficult. But he puts his pants on like we do and his jersey on one arm at a time, I think."

He didn't sound too sure, and with good reason. After stumbling out of the gate, the new-look Cavs have found their way and with James playing MVP-level basketball, yet again, that should hardly come as a surprise.