Cavs in 7.
Raptors have great offense which great Milwaukee D made look bad. Milwaukee doesn't have great O, so hard to get much read on improved Toronto D, but they were great after ther break, improving by 2.5 points over season long Defense.
People underestimate how good Toronto is because they underestimate the quality of the Bucks athleticism which made their playoff D much better. Lowry could cause Cavs a lot of problems. Maybe that one game should mean more than the prior three, but given the Cavs recidivism to bad habits, I'll need to see more than 4-6 quarters of solid D play to be convinced. Seen them look good then look like Tori Spelling on a bender.
Raptors going to give Cavs all they can take. Gonna be a nightmare trying to stop DeRozan who no longer needs to draw as many fouls to score heavily and is much better distributor. Ibaka at the 5 is going to cause the Cavs all kinds of nightmares. We'll see if Patterson/Carroll can handle Love in the post, and if he becomes a passive floater like he did later in the last series. Lowry is a fine defender so that's some bad news. But not seeing anyone able to handle LeBron, not really feeling PJ Tucker is big enough and Carroll hasn't done shit since leaving Atl.
We'll see how diverse the scoring is. Can see the Cavs really coming out and putting the hammer on them the first two games then falling apart in Toronto just like last year. Expect it to come back to Cleveland 2-2. But also see LeBron being worn down by a grueling 7-game series. Toronto is a more physical team with additions of Tucker and Ibaka. Cavs will need to match that intensity, something they've struggled to do at times. Worried about LeBron having to shoulder too much load late in games and starting to tire. Even in great shape, playing 44 minutes is grueling and we KNOW that LBJ has a pernicious tendency to launch 3s and jumpers when he's tired. He's missed threes that gave the opponents to take a winning shot in the first round this year and next.
Cavs are the better team, but sometimes they seem so aware of it, they don't play as hard as their opponents. Don't think that will undo them, but do feel this is the Cavs toughest remaining EC matchup.
