5 reasons the Raptors can beat the Cavaliers

5. The pressure is solely on LeBron James and Cleveland

In preparation for this series, we’ve maybe forgotten that the Toronto Raptors (56-26) finished only one game behind the Cleveland Cavaliers (57-25) during the regular season. And yet, the Raptors are the team that’s just happy to be here and the Cavaliers have the heavy-as-ever weight of an entire region’s sports hopes on their back.

This is LeBron James’ first career playoff series against the Raptors. He’s made five consecutive NBA Finals. He’s 67-12 in career Eastern Conference playoff home games. He’s won a road game in 24 consecutive playoff series. All of the narratives favor LeBron and the Cavaliers. But if they slip up at all, let alone in one of the early games without Jonas Valanciunas, then the Raptors could strike later on as the pressure mounts.

Toronto entered this postseason feeling the squeeze of past playoff failures. They have exorcised those demons, reaching the organization’s first ever Conference Finals.

The Cavaliers are the favorites and deservingly so after the way they mercilessly dispatched the Atlanta Hawks, the Eastern Conference’s top defensive team. But Toronto still was a good team all regular season long and has a chance to make this a very competitive series. They know that the media is already counting them out. From there, anything can happen.

Next: 4. If he can return, Jonas Valanciunas’ size could be a huge factor