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TSN Raptors Reporter

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TORONTO - If the Cavaliers were worried about the Toronto Raptors, if they were really, truly concerned, they could have prolonged this matchup, or perhaps even avoided it altogether.

With first place on the line, Tyronn Lue opted to rest his best players in the final two games of the regular season, essentially conceding the East's top seed to Boston. So, here we are. In controlling its own destiny, at least more than Toronto could, Cleveland set up a rematch of last year's Conference Finals, only it's a couple weeks earlier than some might have expected.

Why, you ask? Is it possible they may have actually preferred to face the Raptors than the Washington Wizards, a team that pushed them hard in two of three meetings this season? Perhaps, and it's a theory that's out there, but still one that seems like a stretch.

The most likely explanation: they just didn't care.

As mid-April approaches, every team is hopeful of two things. They hope to be playing their best basketball and they hope to be at full strength. After backing their way into the stretch run it became clear the reigning champs were not going to check off that first box, no matter how they managed those last few games, so they made sure to check off the second. It's their belief that, if healthy, the conference is still theirs to lose, regardless of who's standing in their way.
​The Raptors can take offence to that if they'd like, but do they really need the added motivation? The task at hand should be more than enough to bring out the best in them. No, this isn't the Conference Finals, but it might as well be. Everything they've done over the last year has been in anticipation of this rematch. It's not about revenge, rather the opportunity to test themselves at the highest level. The Cavs aren't just the team to beat, they're the bar in which Toronto is measuring itself. That is to say, LeBron James is the bar.

James has made it out of the East in each of the last six years. The last time he lost an intra-conference playoff series was in 2010, the season before leaving Cleveland for Miami. Since returning to the Cavaliers, he's won 28 of 32 post-season games against East opponents, with two of those four losses coming to Toronto. Winning this series would only get the Raptors back to where they were last year, but most understand the stakes are bigger than that. If they're going to take the next step, at least in the near future, they'll have to go through The King. The conference is littered with the corpses of teams that have tried and failed. 

So the Raptors - like the Hawks, Pacers, Celtics and Bulls before them - will take another swing, hoping this time will be different, and it may be. Internally, the architects that built this Toronto team are cautiously optimistic, or perhaps optimistically cautious is a better way of putting it. They're very aware of the numbers above and the odds that are stacked up against them, or any other team in Cleveland's crosshairs this time of year. They're not the favourites here, in fact they're overwhelming underdogs. But, in this LeBron-dominated era, all you can do is put yourself in the best possible position to take advantage of an opportunity, a lucky break should it present itself. The Raptors believe they've done that.

A year ago, they stole two games from the Cavs, who had won their first 10 of the post-season. It was two more games than just about anybody expected them to get. Theoretically, this series should be more competitive. At least on paper, Toronto appears to be better and Cleveland seems to be worse. The Raptors added an elite rim protector and legitimate third option in Serge Ibaka, another experienced, physical defender to throw at James in P.J. Tucker and they'll also have a healthy Jonas Valanciunas, who missed most of last year's semifinals, a series in which Toronto was out-rebounded by 45. Meanwhile, the Cavs went into the playoffs with a 12-15 record after the all-star break. They were the NBA's second-worst team in defensive efficiency over that stretch.

Some were of the belief they may actually be vulnerable, others remained confident that James and his veteran teammates would flip the switch once the playoffs began, as they've done so many times before. Their first round performance didn't do much to prove either theory correct, not definitively. On the surface, the result was positive for Cleveland: a four-game sweep of the Indiana Pacers, but the process wasn't nearly as reassuring. They won the series by a combined 16 points, which is tied for the smallest margin of victory in a four-game sweep in NBA history. They became the first team to allow 100 or more points in each contest of a four-game sweep since 1995. One of their wins required a 25-point second-half comeback, something Toronto was nearly on the opposite end of, which brings us to caveat in all of this.

Whether the Cavs are as threatening as they once were is still up for debate, but even in their worst case scenario, they're still really good. The Raptors, in their best case scenario, can be too, but to have any kind of real shot in this series there's almost no room for error. In their six-game series win over Milwaukee, we saw some good (parts of Games 2 and 4, most of Game 5 and the first 30 minutes of Game 6), some bad (Game 1) and some ugly (Game 3 and, of course, the near Game 6 collapse). Needless to say, the champs aren't going to let them get away with any of the latter.

There are simply too many variables to know which version of the Raptors will come to play on any given night. Kyle Lowry was up and down in the first round, still recovering from his wrist injury while also battling back soreness - how will he hold up in a difficult match-up against Kyrie Irving? DeMar DeRozan has been excellent since his Game 3 stinker - can he continue to carry the offence if he finds himself guarded by James? Have a couple weeks’ worth of experiencing wrestling with the Greek Freak prepared the DeMarre Carroll, Tucker, Patrick Patterson trio for an even tougher assignment in The King? Will the Raps overcome their road woes in Cleveland, where they were blown out by an average of 29.3 points in three visits last spring?

They passed their first test, albeit in less than spectacular fashion, but this is where things get interesting. Now we find out what this Raptors team is really made of.