ECSF: P1 | (1) Toronto Raptors vs Cleveland Cavaliers (4) | TIED 0-0

[mattkobe1984]

Against the cavs

If the raptors are able to protect home court up 2-0 this series is over in 5, but if they drop one game I think the cavs will be able to advance. This year will be psychologically in the mindset of the cavs, instead of the raps since pressure is abit off Lowry and demar will bench mob and defensive presence of rookie OG. If they can’t take one game in toronto the cavs role players will be done and lebron won’t have enough in the tank

Against Pacers raps should be able to advance easily, just not enough fire power to get pass the Raptors defense

[theonlyclutch]

Casey really needs to play JV more against Cleveland with TT playing little to no minutes. He'd absolutely destroy them on the boards and in the paint like Sabonis is doing to them. If Casey pulls that same **** like he did in Washington where JV doesnt even see the floor in the 4th, he'd officially become the most bone head coach in the league.

^^^

JV murdered CLE in all three of their matchups and was a positive on the floor against IND. I get that he has his limitations defensively but both CLE and IND don't have the personnel to take advantage of this that well. He can't even be docked for clogging the lane this season now that he's a 40% 3 point shooter.

[Huskies1947]

I think the raps got a little too cocky after games 1 and 2 against the Wizards. Hopefully they keep level headed in the next series. FVV is back too and the bench seemed to get the playoff jitters out of their system.

The raptors bigs are going to murder Kevin love. Our gaurds are better too. There's just that LeBron character who is too good

[BVB24]

Cavs over the Raptors in 7.

Lebron has a legendary Game 7 performance to win a close one.

[Ramed Nazored]

Raps in 5 over Cavs. They win the first two games at home, lose game 3, win game 4 at Cleveland, and then finish it out at home. Against Pacers same thing, in 5. I fully expect a few blowout wins against either team especially at home.

This will be the series where the Raptors finally get respect from RealGM which generally thinks very low of them.

Lol they couldn't even beat the wizards like that. Cavs in 5

Lol the cavs's coudn;t even beat the pacers like that. Raps in 5.

Seriously though, there isn't a single team in these playoffs from either the East or West that the Cavs could beat in 5 games.

They're required super human performances from Lebron James to eke out wins against the pacers. Conversely, the Pacers are routinely blowing out the cavs.

No one is scared of Cleveland anymore.

[XxIronChainzxX]

I think the raps got a little too cocky after games 1 and 2 against the Wizards. Hopefully they keep level headed in the next series. FVV is back too and the bench seemed to get the playoff jitters out of their system.

The raptors bigs are going to murder Kevin love. Our gaurds are better too. There's just that LeBron character who is too good

All 5 games were hard fought, except in game 3 where the Raptors turned into turnover machines basically passing the ball directly to the Wizards. The other thing is that while the Wizards were a dysfunctional mess, part of that was not showing up against bad teams and showing up against good ones - their record against 0.500 teams was good.

[LightTheBeam]

Raps in 5 over Cavs. They win the first two games at home, lose game 3, win game 4 at Cleveland, and then finish it out at home. Against Pacers same thing, in 5. I fully expect a few blowout wins against either team especially at home.

This will be the series where the Raptors finally get respect from RealGM which generally thinks very low of them.

Lol they couldn't even beat the wizards like that. Cavs in 5

Because they had struggles on the road which continued from the regular season. But their defense has improved in the last two games holding Washington to 102.2 and 106 offensive ratings and below 100 points better than their performance in the first 4 games. I think the Raptors will only improve as they keep moving forward. Plus they got Fred Van Vleet back who wasn't playing in the first 5 games of the Washington series.

2011 Mavericks beat Portland in 6 in the first round and then SWEPT the 2 time defending champion Lakers in the next round. 2014 Spurs beat the Mavs in 7 in the first round and then beat Portland in 5 in the next round with huge margin of victories. By your thinking these semifinals series should have dragged out longer than they have or the other teams should have won.

Because the Cavs/Pacers are clearly on another level than the Wizards.

[LightTheBeam]

Raps in 5 over Cavs. They win the first two games at home, lose game 3, win game 4 at Cleveland, and then finish it out at home. Against Pacers same thing, in 5. I fully expect a few blowout wins against either team especially at home.

This will be the series where the Raptors finally get respect from RealGM which generally thinks very low of them.

Lol they couldn't even beat the wizards like that. Cavs in 5

The Wizards are the only team in the Eastern Conference outside of Toronto and Philly that have 2 star level players. Every other team, in these play offs, either has no star (BOS, MIA) or relies on one (CLE, MIL, IND). Their good enough to be a second round opponent so I don't know how anyone can just say "Muh, 1 seed struggling against 8 seed, trash team".

The Wizards don't have Lebron James lol. Ill take Lebron over the entire Wizards roster.

[LightTheBeam]

Lol they couldn't even beat the wizards like that. Cavs in 5

The Wizards are the only team in the Eastern Conference outside of Toronto and Philly that have 2 star level players. Every other team, in these play offs, either has no star (BOS, MIA) or relies on one (CLE, MIL, IND). Their good enough to be a second round opponent so I don't know how anyone can just say "Muh, 1 seed struggling against 8 seed, trash team".

While the Wizards are not a traditional 1 vs 8 matchup, that team is genuinely bad outside of Wall and Beal. Raptors should have swept their sorry asses and watch Indiana and Cleveland beat up on each other for a week, but instead they put on a Doof Casey-approved disappearing act in Game 3 (I'm not kidding), then in Game 4 guys like Delon Wright kept passing up wide open shots (Patterson-itis) and handing the ball back to DeRozan (this is the kind of behavior Raptors are trying to get away from in the first place) so he was forced to chuck up a bunch of Doof Casey-approved garbage shots and then take all the blame for attempting shots no one else wanted to take. Once Fred VanVleet came back the Wizards had zero chance of winning the series. Z. E. R. O. Now, I don't trust Doof Casey to coach the Raptors past LeBron based on previous times LeBron has humiliated the Raptors, but who knows maybe he finally figures out to stop sending help defense at LeBron on every single possession and leave his Raptor killing goons wide open for threes that they always make as a result. And perhaps he will finally leave in JV even after LeBron denies him an easy path to the rim on ONE possession and replace him with Ibricka aka Serge Bargnani who is utterly unplayable against Cleveland. Maybe Doof Casey finally shows me he is a worthy playoff coach, but I just don't see it happening. I just don't trust Doof Casey for Round 2.

Thank you for your honest opinion. Fresh take, I can respect that.

[nikster]

Lol they couldn't even beat the wizards like that. Cavs in 5

The Wizards are the only team in the Eastern Conference outside of Toronto and Philly that have 2 star level players. Every other team, in these play offs, either has no star (BOS, MIA) or relies on one (CLE, MIL, IND). Their good enough to be a second round opponent so I don't know how anyone can just say "Muh, 1 seed struggling against 8 seed, trash team".

The Wizards don't have Lebron James lol. Ill take Lebron over the entire Wizards roster.

you can say the same for Indiana, yet with Lebron playing incredible basketball they forced Game 7 and completely blew out the Cavs last game.

[LightTheBeam]

The Wizards are the only team in the Eastern Conference outside of Toronto and Philly that have 2 star level players. Every other team, in these play offs, either has no star (BOS, MIA) or relies on one (CLE, MIL, IND). Their good enough to be a second round opponent so I don't know how anyone can just say "Muh, 1 seed struggling against 8 seed, trash team".

The Wizards don't have Lebron James lol. Ill take Lebron over the entire Wizards roster.

you can say the same for Indiana, yet with Lebron playing incredible basketball they forced Game 7 and completely blew out the Cavs last game.

Now don't get upset, but I think the Pacers are a better team than the Raptors. Especially going against the Lebron led Cavs.

[simple_jack]

Just realized this is the first time the Raps have had home court against the Cavs if they advance.

Its also nice that Frye is no longer on that team.

[The Answer!]

If Fred can stay healthy, I like our chances vs either opponent. I predict the series will last another 6 or 7 games. The bench mob chemistry is night and day with him as our quarterback. I never imagined an undrafted, undersized guard would have such an impact to the team. Huge fan of his! #BetOnYourself

[simple_jack]

The Wizards don't have Lebron James lol. Ill take Lebron over the entire Wizards roster.

you can say the same for Indiana, yet with Lebron playing incredible basketball they forced Game 7 and completely blew out the Cavs last game.

Now don't get upset, but I think the Pacers are a better team than the Raptors. Especially going against the Lebron led Cavs.

Lol nah bro.

Raptors are good team with psychological problems sometimes. But game 6 they showed that they're rounding back into that top tier regular season team. Fred>>>>>Lowry. That bench squad is back.

[dukes_wild]

Casey really needs to play JV more against Cleveland with TT playing little to no minutes. He'd absolutely destroy them on the boards and in the paint like Sabonis is doing to them. If Casey pulls that same **** like he did in Washington where JV doesnt even see the floor in the 4th, he'd officially become the most bone head coach in the league.

^^^

JV murdered CLE in all three of their matchups and was a positive on the floor against IND. I get that he has his limitations defensively but both CLE and IND don't have the personnel to take advantage of this that well. He can't even be docked for clogging the lane this season now that he's a 40% 3 point shooter.

Yet JV only averaged 20 MPG in the 3 games vs CLE

16/12 on 20 minutes, that's insane production. Casey didn't play him because of the Love at the 5 match-up but man idc if you give up a bit defensively if you're putting up 16/12 on insane efficiency in 20 minutes you clearly deserve more PT

Cavs have no answer for JV. If Casey is a legit COY candidate he has to force the Cavs to adjust to JV, not the other way around.

[SFour]

This is the 1st time Raptors have a rest advantage & HCA over the Cavs, who also do not have Kyrie anymore....this is the Raptors best chance to beat Leborn.

[mademan]

Casey really needs to play JV more against Cleveland with TT playing little to no minutes. He'd absolutely destroy them on the boards and in the paint like Sabonis is doing to them. If Casey pulls that same **** like he did in Washington where JV doesnt even see the floor in the 4th, he'd officially become the most bone head coach in the league.

^^^

JV murdered CLE in all three of their matchups and was a positive on the floor against IND. I get that he has his limitations defensively but both CLE and IND don't have the personnel to take advantage of this that well. He can't even be docked for clogging the lane this season now that he's a 40% 3 point shooter.

Problem is, the 2 games the Cavs killed us with their shooting, JV's inability to guard Love at the 3pt line opened up their entire offense. That said, with Love being injured and unable to shoot out there, maybe it wont be such a detriment defensively. JV can and probably will abuse them inside

[mademan]

Casey really needs to play JV more against Cleveland with TT playing little to no minutes. He'd absolutely destroy them on the boards and in the paint like Sabonis is doing to them. If Casey pulls that same **** like he did in Washington where JV doesnt even see the floor in the 4th, he'd officially become the most bone head coach in the league.

^^^

JV murdered CLE in all three of their matchups and was a positive on the floor against IND. I get that he has his limitations defensively but both CLE and IND don't have the personnel to take advantage of this that well. He can't even be docked for clogging the lane this season now that he's a 40% 3 point shooter.

Yet JV only averaged 20 MPG in the 3 games vs CLE

16/12 on 20 minutes, that's insane production. Casey didn't play him because of the Love at the 5 match-up but man idc if you give up a bit defensively if you're putting up 16/12 on insane efficiency in 20 minutes you clearly deserve more PT

Cavs have no answer for JV. If Casey is a legit COY candidate he has to force the Cavs to adjust to JV, not the other way around.

Casey has some shortfalls, but he's still a very good coach. We werent giving up a little with JV on Love, we were giving up a lot. Any action that involved a Love Pnr,PnP, we were doomed from the beginning. JV cant help and rotate and it kept giving Cleveland open looks. They shot ridiculously well from 3 in our last 2 games, and, while there is much fault to go around, a lot of it was our starting FC foot speed

[mademan]

Lol they couldn't even beat the wizards like that. Cavs in 5

The Wizards are the only team in the Eastern Conference outside of Toronto and Philly that have 2 star level players. Every other team, in these play offs, either has no star (BOS, MIA) or relies on one (CLE, MIL, IND). Their good enough to be a second round opponent so I don't know how anyone can just say "Muh, 1 seed struggling against 8 seed, trash team".

The Wizards don't have Lebron James lol. Ill take Lebron over the entire Wizards roster.

They really arent tho, not by any measurement. All on the same level, even if the Wiz are the worst of the 3

[dukes_wild]

^^^

JV murdered CLE in all three of their matchups and was a positive on the floor against IND. I get that he has his limitations defensively but both CLE and IND don't have the personnel to take advantage of this that well. He can't even be docked for clogging the lane this season now that he's a 40% 3 point shooter.

Yet JV only averaged 20 MPG in the 3 games vs CLE

16/12 on 20 minutes, that's insane production. Casey didn't play him because of the Love at the 5 match-up but man idc if you give up a bit defensively if you're putting up 16/12 on insane efficiency in 20 minutes you clearly deserve more PT

Cavs have no answer for JV. If Casey is a legit COY candidate he has to force the Cavs to adjust to JV, not the other way around.

Casey has some shortfalls, but he's still a very good coach. We werent giving up a little with JV on Love, we were giving up a lot. Any action that involved a Love Pnr,PnP, we were doomed from the beginning. JV cant help and rotate and it kept giving Cleveland open looks. They shot ridiculously well from 3 in our last 2 games, and, while there is much fault to go around, a lot of it was our starting FC foot speed

The game we lost on March 21 to the Cavs I went back to the Play by Play and the Cavs shot just as well when Poeltl was at the 5 as they did with JV. Their main onslaught actually came while JV was on the bench

In that game, JV was the only starter with a +/- at +6, he shot 6/6 for 15 points in 20 minutes.