Every NBA fan expected the Golden State Warriors to be in the Western Conference Finals. The same goes for the Cleveland Cavaliers in the East. Even the Oklahoma City Thunder aren’t in a unfamiliar position being in full health. The lone interloper in the NBA’s final four is the Toronto Raptors. Canada’s favorite sons have shed their image as perennial underachievers. They are the furthest they’ve ever been in the playoffs, and they have no intention of resting on moral victories. But are “The North” in over their heads? Or are they primed to make Drake an even more demonstrative on the Raptors sideline?
While their competition has made relatively quick work of their opposition in this postseason, the Raptors have gone the distance twice against the Pacers and Heat. This pair of arduous series have proven to be both physically draining and character building for Toronto. However, their next task is more than likely going to be tougher than their previous two combined.
Even as the second seed in the conference, the Raptors are viewed as steep underdogs against Cleveland. That is all the more so with Toronto center Jonas Valanciunas hobbled entering the series. But still, this is a Raptors team that took two out of three against the Cavaliers in the regular season. Both of those victories came at home, but it cannot be discounted.
While LeBron James is still viewed as one of the best, if not the best, players in the NBA, the key to this series is Toronto’s Kyle Lowry. Lowry has powered through several poor shooting spells in this postseason (36.6% overall, 28.3% from 3), but has made the shots that mattered. That was also the case during the Raptors’ games with Cleveland this year. He scored 27 points on 11-of-17 shooting in their first meeting. He recorded a double-double with 23 and 10 assists in their second meeting, their lone loss. His final game was his masterpiece though netting 43 points to Kyrie Irving’s 10, along with 9 assists, 5 rebounds, and 4 steals. His 46.2 PER was the highest by a Cleveland opponent in 2015-16. But it isn’t just Lowry or bust with the Raptors.
The Double De’s, as I’ve so eloquently come to call them, DeMar DeRozan and DeMarre Carroll, will be thorns in LeBron and company’s side on either end of the floor. James will most likely draw the assignment of guarding DeRozan, who’s averaged 20 points per game in the postseason. DeMar has endured similar struggles from the field as his backcourt counterpart Lowry, but he showed grit in scoring 28 in the Heat finale, as well as bottling up Dwyane Wade. But DeRozan won’t be the one attempting to do the same to Cleveland’s King. That task will befell DeMarre Carroll.
I shouldn’t use such glum words about this situation though for Carroll, as he’s shown on numerous occasions his proclivity for slowing down LeBron James, as well as the King’s new-found three point trebuchet battalion. In their one head to head match-up during the regular season, LeBron only shot 37.5% from the field against Carroll, and 20% from deep. It was his fourth worst shooting output of the season. But that should be mildly expected given Carroll’s effectiveness last postseason as a member of the Hawks in which he forced James to give up his usual driving tendencies in favor of hoisting threes and mid-range fades.
In the end though it all comes down to whether or not Toronto is just happy to be here, or put another stamp on the greatest season in the club’s history. They have the talent. They have a coach that lets his players play. The only thing they lack is the experience. But many decreed that a lack of experience would hurt the Warriors last year against the Cavaliers, and we all saw how that turned out. It may uncharted territory for the Raptors in the Eastern Conference Finals, but if their run to this point showed us anything, they are quite the quick cartographers.