Capsule preview of the Raptors-Cavaliers series

However, they’ll still play a minimum of two games in Toronto, with James looking to extend his unique streak of winning a road contest in 27 consecutive playoff series.

Kevin Love is a sneaky good offensive rebounder, and Tristan Thompson is one of the best in the game at finding cracks in the defence to get extra possessions for the Cavaliers. LeBron James shot 85 per cent from the field; Iman Shumpert was a plus-24. Toronto improved to 2-5 all-time with a chance to close out a series on the road by winning Game 6, 92-89, in Milwaukee on Thursday despite blowing a 25-point lead.

“It’s big”, said DeMar DeRozan, on having Tucker.

Whether it played out in the conference final or the second round, it was nearly unavoidable, perhaps inevitable, the Raptor would hook up with the Cavs.

These Raptors don’t want that to happen again.

“I’m just optimistic because it’s a different year”, Lowry said after practice on Sunday. “This time we know what to expect”.

The three days between has seen Toronto pore over film.

The Raptors have added some pieces in veteran forwards Serge Ibaka and P.J. Tucker, while center Bismack Biyombo, who killed the Cavs in Games 3 and 4 past year, left through free agency.

The Cavs are coming into this series fresh off a series sweep of the Pacers so they’ll be full of confidence compared to the Raptors who had to rally from behind against a young, shorthanded Bucks outfit. “[Cleveland] is thinking, ‘so what if we start on the road, we know if we go into your building, we can dominate'”.

The Cavaliers are certainly going to depend heavily on James and Irving, but they have managed to add key, unsafe pieces coming off the bench. “We should be able to come out composed and understand what we have to do”. That won’t be a surprise. That feels worlds different than what the Raptors experienced a year ago.

Just how good was James in the first round?

Coach Dwane Casey said the team is now much better equipped to handle the Cavs. “We’ve got to be mentally and physically ready at seven o’clock”. We’ve got to be in high gear. It has been that way since he first stepped into the National Basketball Association out of high school and has never changed. The first night, we’ve got to fight through that.

In the latter, you need to exploit the match-ups, execute well but also be mentally primed to come out on top. “And I like that about our team”. He probably takes it to the grocery store. That was another year, another team, another world.

In last season’s playoff matchup, Cleveland connected on 44 per cent of its long-distance attempts in its four victories over Toronto. “They’re still very capable defensively just because of James and the way he reads the floor and reads situations, helps his teammates”.

But is that enough for the Cavaliers when they reach the deeper phase of their championship quest? Some of them are actually pretty good, and some of them are like I’ve seen them before, seen it since high school, actually.

“Kyrie’s a great player as well, he’s going to do what he does, but you’ve got to try to limit him as well”.

For the Bucks, it was manifested in the many missed free throws. More guys to throw at whoever else is going. He averaged 23 points and shot 91% from the line. “You can see him gearing up for the playoffs”. That means that when they’re not running a pick and roll, they’re setting picks in order to get the matchups they want, then running isolation plays. However, the Cavaliers need to do only two things to send Toronto packing.

“No, not at all”, he said.

Offensive toughness has been a season-long issue with the Raptors, but they somehow survived against the Bucks. “It being the postseason, obviously it holds a little bit more weight”. But that doesn’t matter. “And to win, you’ve gotta go through the champs”.

IN – a middle-of-the-pack offensive squad – hit the century mark in each game, and while Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love are gifted offensive players for Celeveland, they’re both liabilities defensively. For me, I just go out and try to win every game and do whatever it takes to help our team be successful. That’s all that matters to me. We’d been losing, had a losing record since I was there. I’m sure I’m going to play better. But he plays hard, scraps and competes.