The Cleveland Cavaliers are playing the Toronto Raptors for the third year in a row, we know the Cavs eliminated the Raptors the previous two season, but this year for Raptors fans is supposed to be different. The guys from “the six” had the best record in the East and the second best record in the NBA to claim the No. 1 seed in the East. All is supposed to be well in the land that Drake roams.
While the Raptors had a great regular season, the Cavs had one of entertaining regular seasons in recent history with numerous trades, Ty Lue being in and off the bench (Is he really coaching them?), is LeBron leaving talk and I could go on. At the end of the day the new look Cavs landed a No. 4 seed and had seven game battle with the Indiana Pacers where it looked like James was carrying 12 players on his back like he was preparing for a strong man competition.
After watching how Game One played out I thought about the last post game interview DeMar DeRozan and Corey Joseph had after being swept by the Cavs and thought to myself is James really does have mind control over this team and it starts with DeRozan and Kyle Lowry. Both are stars and perennial All-Stars in their own right, but no matter how good they play leading into a series with the King he will always have mind control over this bunch. It will be up to Fred VanVleet, Delon Wright, Pascal Siakam, OG Anunoby and others to break this hex that he has over these two stars.
Game One the Raptors were winning the whole game until overtime and they eventually ended up losing 113-112 to the King and his crew. A few missed put backs by Jonas Valanciunas late in the fourth quarter ended up hunting the home team, but it also highlighted James cloud over this franchise. Can the Raptors push through? When the Cavs seem to be most vulnerable losing Game One wasn’t the confidence boost they needed to climb this mountain at the end of the day LeBron James is the Debo to their Smokey (Toronto Raptors)
