What a turn of events in the Eastern Conference Finals!! The Toronto Raptors evened the best of seven series at 2-2 with a 105-99 victory last night over the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Raptors jumped out in front early and maintained the lead until about midway through the 4th quarter. The Air Canada Centre faithful would not go let their team get down for long.
Behind the efforts of the young and talented backcourt of DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry, #WeTheNorth regained the lead and never looked back. The Raptors travel to Cleveland for Game 5 on Wednesday night. Jonas Valenciunas was back and ready to go but Bismack Biyombo has been the Cavs stopper and catalyst for this Raptors team late in the Miami series and these last two games at home against Cleveland.
Biyombo has been an absolute terror on the boards, giving the Raptors second chance opportunities and his defense has also been nothing short of spectacular being very disruptive to the Cavs offense. I'll be the first to apologize to the Raptors and Biyombo for my harsh words following the conclusion of the Heat series where Toronto won Game 7 at home in convincing fashion. He has certainly silenced the critics, like Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless, by playing his heart out and most certainly increasing his value for the upcoming offseason. You saw what happened to the Heat once they lost Hassan Whiteside in that series, they were never the same team.
I can only see Toronto improving the remainder of the series, especially since Kyle Lowry seems to have found his stroke and Dwane Casey has adjusted his game plan and is showing his experience over the much younger head coach, Tyronn Lue. Now, not only does Lue have to rally his troops to regain control of the series, but he's also got to factor a gameplan for the very versatile and talented center, not Biyombo, but Jonas Valenciunas. It poses the question, which coach would do better when faced with adversity and after breezing by the competition the first two rounds, Lue and the Cavs have all of sudden hit a roadblock and have entered Jurassic Park. Was firing David Blatt the right decision for Dan Gilbert and company?? I guess only time will tell.
If, and that's a a pretty big if right now, the Cavaliers manage to find their stride and eliminate the Raptors, how will they do against a much faster and more prolific offense and defensive team in either Golden State or Oklahoma City Thunder??? It doesn't hurt that you have arguably the greatest player in the game right now on your side, but will it be enough? Both series' will come down to the contribution of the role players and late game execution. That will be the deciding factor to determine which teams will face each other for the Larry O'Brien trophy.