They haven’t exactly been wildly consistent, but they are in the East finals and they are facing the Cavaliers.
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The victory puts the Raptors in the Eastern Conference final for the first time in franchise history against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
James and company have yet to taste defeat this postseason, as they dispatched the Detroit Pistons and Atlanta Hawks in consecutive 4-0 series.
James and the Cavaliers are back in playoff mode. In Game 2 of their series sweep over the Atlanta Hawks in round two, they hit a record 25 three-pointers.
Toronto was the second-best ball squad during the regular season having won 56 games in 82 matches played.
Although the three-point ball was the Cavaliers’ greatest offensive weapon in the first two games of the series, and again, in Game 3, Smith felt the team pulled out the final two victories due to their defensive effort. Both were a drop from the Pacers regular season. James said the time off was huge for him and his teammates.
If both teams play the way they did the past two playoff series, this Eastern Conference Finals should be a close one. Toronto needed seven games to get out of the first round, as well, while Cleveland has played just eight total games since the regular season ended. “Nothin'”, Lue said when asked what the Cavs could learn from their previous games with the Raptors. “I don’t know how Cleveland feels about us but nobody is going to favor us to beat them in this series”.
The Cavs will focus on slowing down the Raptors’ two-headed guard tandem.
Toronto Raptors’ Kyle Lowry gestures as he’s taken out of the game during the second half of Game 7 of the NBA basketball Eastern Conference semifinals against the Miami Heat in Toronto, Sunday, May 15, 2016.
On Sunday, Lowry and DeRozan stole the show as Toronto powered their way to a convincing victory in front of a raucous home crowd.
“That’s going to be an issue”, Casey said. James and the Cavaliers finally have an opponent in the Eastern Conference finals. “They wouldn’t be in this position without them”.
JR Smith has been lights out in the playoffs for the Cavs, Kyrie Irving has been balling out, scoring at will, and Kevin Love, while struggling inside the arc, has been doing damage from behind the three point line.
“I didn’t really indulge into it too much”, James said of a possible meeting with Wade and a team he led to four straight Finals. He’s such a smart player, he sees the floor, he finds good shooters and they don’t even have to move their hands.
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For the Cavs, who are a flawless 8 for 8 so far in the playoffs, the anticipation is over. A player like LeBron James can do everything for a team but relying on one guy is risky. We were naturally watching the Atlanta and Boston series, and depending on who we were going to play, just looking at the different matchups, the key matchups and how those teams are coached, what their fourth-quarter package is, how they run their offense, defensive schemes, and we saw both of those teams a year ago in the playoffs.
