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Cleveland Cavs (2016 NBA Champions)

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Lowry and Derozan seem to be gaining confidence which is not good. As many games they have choked these playoffs they are lucky to still be here.
Toronto seems like a tougher matchup for the Cavs than Miami would have been, but I think that's a good thing because I want someone to Challenge the Cavs before they walk into the Finals and get shell shocked by the superior talent and ball movement of GS.

I will say this, I'm shocked the Cavs have played as well as they have. Its not easy to sweep teams. With the home cooking by the Refs an opposing team usually gets a win before the series is over. I remember the damn Pacers with plodding Hibbert and crazy Lance "blowing in Lebrons ear" Stephenson taking the Miami heat through 6 and 7 games series. And I thought Miami had better chemistry than the Cavs ever did.
In all the years Lebron was with Miami. They never swept the first two rounds.

They say its not easy to "flip the switch", that championship habits are built through the grinding regular season, but somehow after going through a season playing lackadaisical and out of sync many games this Cavs team which has been described as "mental midgets" has somehow found a way to flip the proverbial switch and look nothing short of thoroughbred championship material. That could very well be "destined for greatness" as Lebron claims.

I think this next series will be more of a challenge for the Cavs but..
I think it was Tressel who once said adversity is great for a team when you can overcome it.
 
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OKC takes home court advantage away from Golden State with a pretty surprising win in Game 1. Thought GS was going to blow them out at one point. Nice comeback for OKC. Would think CLE matches up better with OKC in the Finals. Still a long ways from that though
 
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LordJeffBuck said:
Toronto got some serious home cooking from the refs in game 7, including 43 free throws to Miami's 23. If that happens against the Cavs, then Toronto will definitely win some games, maybe even the series.
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Not a chance in hell Toronto wins. As for the officials, having seen the games in Miami I'll shed no tears over D Wade not getting the love in game 7.
 
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Here's my moderately educated take:

A confident Raptors team definitely poses a bigger threat than the Heat would have. They will have an advantage in Lowry over Irving at both ends of the floor. DeRozan will likely draw Smith/Shump, who basically eliminated Kyle Korver for 3/4th of the last series. But DeRozan is an All-Star and a far bigger threat than Korver ever was. Toronto likes to play below the arc and doesn't defend the arc well...Toronto was 29th in the league defending the 3 and obviously that is where Cleveland is killing teams. Carroll will be matched up with LeBron again...the LeBron who averaged over 30 against him last year. I think him chasing LeBron all series last year was part of the reason he struggled offensively. Toronto is good at defending the paint, which won't really matter if Cleveland's shooters are knocking shots down like the last two series. Biyombo was the guy who played out of his mind most of the Raptors/Heat series but that was mostly after Whiteside went down and Cleveland will start by throwing Thompson at him but can also match Love or Frye at him at times. DeRozan and Lowry are going to need some help and Valanciunas being questionable is not good for them. I still have the Cavs in 5...and possibly 4 if Valanciunas can't go at all this series. They can defend LeBron about as well as anyone in the league, which is why they were 2-1 against the Cavs in the regular season but LeBron isn't even leading the team in scoring and if he is getting help from Smith, Love, Frye, etc. then this could be another quick series.
 
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