You might have been thinking that this would be the year that the Cleveland Cavaliers get knocked off early in the playoffs. After an abysmal end to their season and a relatively low playoff berth at No. 2 (we’re talking about the Cavs here), you could have thought that there was a strong chance that they’d get pitted up against the perennially strong and under-rated Toronto Raptors and that maybe—just maybe—they’d see their early demise. But no such nonsense was in the stars for LeBron and crew. In fact—after Cleveland eviscerated Toronto in Game 1—you’d almost be nuts to have bet against anything but a sweep.
It’s hard to say exactly why this is such a brutal matchup—DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry are nothing to shake a stick at—but the Raptors were out there looking like the Washington Generals to the Harlem Globe Trotters. Need any other examples besides this madness from Game 2?
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The Indiana Pacers, seated at No. 7 compared to Toronto’s with a sharpshooting Paul George and a decent perimeter, made for a much stronger matchup. Yes, the Cavs swept them too, but only by an average margin of victory at four points per game. The average margin of victory against the Raptors: 15.25 points. It’s just nightmare fuel for the front office of Toronto right now.
Just look at what the Cavs were doing to these poor human beings in their own home:
LeBron walked away from the series as the first person to drop at least 30 points per game in six straight playoffs games since Kobe in 2010. At some point, these games started to become stat stuffers more than a playoff series.
It’s hard to tell if the East’s No. 1 Celtics have any chance of striking down the absurdly well-rounded and gelling Cavs in the next round—or if the Wizards have any chance of out-shooting Cleveland with their well-spread John Wall-led perimeter play. But at this point, with the Cavs getting yet another absurdly long stretch of rest time while their future opponents battle it out, it seems safest to put your money on yet another Cavs sweep.
