The Cleveland Cavaliers take on the Toronto Raptors at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday night in the regular-season opener for both teams.

The Cavaliers (44-38 in 2021-22 season) are considered one of the up and coming squads in either conference with good reason, considering Cleveland made a blockbuster trade for Donovan Mitchell that clearly demonstrates the team feels it's ready to vault into the upper echelon of the Eastern Conference. Mitchell joins a high-upside nucleus consisting of Darius Garland, Caris LeVert, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen. Cleveland was able to get into the play-in round last season before being eliminated with back-to-back losses, but they'll get an immediate litmus test to open the season against a Raptors squad that also has playoff aspirations.

The Cavaliers will be without Ricky Rubio (knee) and Dylan Windler (ankle) for Wednesday's opener.

The Raptors (48-34 in 2021-22 season) were able to parlay their solid regular-season record a year ago into a No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference, but they were ousted by the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round of the conference playoffs. Toronto returns the same starting five of Fred VanVleet, Gary Trent, OG Anunoby, Scottie Barnes and Pascal Siakam, and they should continue to benefit from a solid second unit that includes productive holdovers Precious Achiuwa, Dalano Banton and Malachi Flynn.

The Raptors will be without Otto Porter (hamstring) for Wednesday's game. Khem Birch (knee) and Chris Boucher (hamstring) will carry doubtful tags.

The Cavaliers took three of four games from the Raptors during the 2021-22 regular season.