LeBron is gone, so I don't see the Raptors getting swept by him again this year.
Unless, of course, LeBron and the Raptors make it to the NBA Finals. They would get swept, again.
The Raptors get linked to getting rolled by LeBron, and with good reason, but let's not forget that before they ever met Playoff LeBron they got swept by the lower-seeded Wizards and taken out in a home Game 7 by a lower seeded Nets teams. They've sucked in the playoffs in non-LeBron situations too.
I think Lowry and Kawhi will both be disgruntled all year and that the team will have a pretty good record on talent but will lowkey underachieve in the regular season and implode in the playoffs.
That Nets team was the one with Pierce, Garnett, Williams, Lopez, and Johnson. They coasted through the regular season managing all of the old guys time, but they were all healthy in the playoffs. In other words, that Nets team was a lot better than the Raptors were in the post season. Wizards though was a pretty bad loss (DeRozan actually played alright, Lowry was atrocious though). Since the Wizards loss though, they have only lost to the Cavs in the playoffs, beating Indiana, Miami, Milwaukee, and Washington over the last 3 seasons.
I'm saying their playoff struggles go beyond "can't beat LeBron". He's been the guy that's gotten them lately but somebody's always gotten them. They blew the first round two years in a row, no LeBron needed. It's just an overly narrow framing to tie it all to LeBron. They've been a bad playoff team, probably historically bad for a team with their seeds over a 5 year period.
You know who else lost in the 1st Round 2 years in a row and then has lost the last 2 seasons to the Cavs, our very own Celtics.
Or maybe the Lakers who were losing in the 06 and 07 1st round are a better comparison. They only went on to the next 3 NBA Finals winning 2.
Teams lose in the 1st round all of the time. The Spurs have as many 1st round losses as they do championships in the last 20 years (starting with the 1st title season). The 4 seasons preceding the Mavericks title, they had 3 1st round losses and a 2nd round loss.
This notion that a young team didn't perform great, is just who they are, is quite silly. They were young, but they got better. They just ran into a better team the last 3 years. It happens.
None of these are very good comparisons, because they're conspicuously missing the key element of consistently losing to lower-seeded teams. Dallas is the best comparison, they blew first rounders as a 2 and a 1 but also won from the 6 spot and lost from a 7. They had a deserved reputation as playoff chokers until they actually got it done. Spurs recent losses were as an 8, a 6 and one legit horrible loss as a 1. Celtics as a 7 and 5, Lakers as a 7 and a 7. With the exception of a couple of huge upsets, all of those teams performed about the way their seed said they should.
Toronto on the other hand has taken seeds of 3, 4, 2, 3, and 1, had homecourt in 7 of 9 series, and gone 15-15 in the 1st round, 4-11 in the 2nd, 2-4 in the conference finals, 21-30 overall. They're 1-6 in home Game 1s. They've never won a series in less than 6. They've been swept 3 times in 5 years, including twice with homecourt.
The reason why it's hard to find a good comparison because they're a historically bad playoff team. The reason why they keep running into better playoff teams is because they're a historically bad playoff team. They're just a historically bad playoff team.
The Spurs won the title and the very next year lost 3-1 in the first round with home court advantage. They lost 2 other times in the first round as a 54 and 61 win team. They clearly choked in most of those series, which isn't the case with the Raptors. The Nets were absolutely a better team then they were as were the Cavs every single season. The only "upset" loss was the Wizards, but the Wizards aren't a great match-up for the Raptors with Wall and Beal's speed and quickness. Plus that was a 4/5 matchup and Beal missed 19 games (they were 9-10 without Beal and 37-26 with Beal). Beal doesn't get hurt, the Wizards end up with home court. They also had Pierce that year (along with Nene, Gortat, and Gooden all 30 or over). That also wasn't anywhere close to the same Raptors team as they started Amir Johnson/Tyler Hansborough (2 games each) and Terrence Ross (the Raptors didn't have a single player 30 or over either). It wasn't exactly a stacked team.
The Cavs were the best team in the East the last 4 seasons. No one beat them and no one beat them for a reason. You seem to be placing a large amount of weight on the Raptors 2-12 record against the Cavs, which just seems strange (Boston is 4-12 against Cleveland in the playoffs in the last 4 seasons, so not a whole lot better, and the only reason Boston isn't 4-16 is because it lost in 6 to the Hawks before the Hawks got swept by the Cavs). Let's not forget, Cleveland was 36-6 against the East before this past season.
The simple reality is Lebron James was a terrible matchup for the Raptors. I tole everyone on this blog, he was a terrible matchup for them and that the Raptors were going to lose this year before the series started. It wasn't because the Raptors are a terrible playoff team, it is because they can't be Lebron. The last 3 seasons when Toronto doesn't play Cleveland in the playoffs they are 16-10 with 4 series wins and no series losses. No team in the conference has more series wins (Boston also has 4 series wins, but does have the series loss - even the last 2 years Boston is just 16-9 with the 4 series wins).
Plus, as clay has consistently pointed out, they have a much different team then the team that lost to Washington, which includes both Leonard and Green who are experienced championship vets.
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Topic: Who worries you the most in the East? (Read 5961 times)