The one-two punch of Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan has been a staple of the Raptors attack for a number of seasons now, and it seems, after years of disappointment, everything has finally come together for the team as they give themselves a chance to compete (potentially for the National Basketball Association championship).
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Western Conference Finals: (3) Oklahoma City Thunder vs (1) Golden State Warriors: This was a high entertaining match-up in the regular season and expect it to be in this series as well. The Raptors were 2-1 against the Cavs this season, including a four point victory early in the season, and a 2 point victory late, where Kyle Lowry hit a step-back jumper, which turned out to be the game-winner.
The eccentric Cavaliers shooting guard praised the team’s supporters in Cleveland as the team moves toward a second straight NBA Finals appearance. Coming back home and receiving the MVP award back to back in front of the home crowd just lifted Curry’s and the team’s spirits to a whole another level which just helped them through to its 4th consecutive conference finals with 2 games to spare.
“You would think there’s so much pressure on us for being a team that hasn’t won in X amount of years”, Smith told the New York Times of the Cavaliers not winning a title in 46 years. The difference in this series will be which role players will step up the most and which coach will make better in game adjustments.
The Cavaliers’ Big Three was on the roll.
That 57 percent winning clip is enough to turn a profit over time, but pales in comparison to the Game 1 winning rate Eastern Conference underdogs have posted in that same span. Heading into Game 1 of the Eastern finals, with the Cleveland Cavaliers set as -10.5 favorites hosting the Toronto Raptors, underdogs are 13-8-1 ATS – covering 62 percent of the time since the 1993-94 season – in the opening contests of the East championship.
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While both clubs appear to be unbeatable over the course of a seven-game series, the Cavs were supposed to receive a free pass to the final round all along. It took them 7 games to beat an injured Miami Heat team. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook combined to be too hot for the Spurs as the legendary trio of Ginobli, Duncan, Parker couldn’t fire out all guns. The Spurs were considered their biggest competition, but San Antonio was ousted by the Oklahoma City Thunder in six games in their second-round series. This Thunder team is for real.
