A very late round 1 review comes to you from the author of the series previewer who was extremely astute and accurate when he said,

�The big out is Zion, and if he was healthy we may be looking at this at a completely different angle. Unfortunately for the Raptors I think it will be a quick and painful exit from the playoffs falling 4-0 to the less slightly undermanned Cavaliers

The Cavs win just about every battle at every position, if Toronto can find a spot for Ayton to succeed while shutting down McCollum and playing Jrue to a draw they might be able to steal a game, but the weak point is unfortunately that small forward position. Is Josh Green playable there? Could that be a wild card, could Okoro do much? Can Finney-Smith be a stop gap in the starting spot and Rivers comes in as a super sub to try turn the tide? The lack of scoring on the bench is really hard to overcome when faced with the well balanced Cavs guys�

Well let it be known that I am here to call myself out on being so far wrong its was embarrassing. Fortunately I wasn�t alone in my predictions because misery loves company, and 83% of voters were on my side of the upset.

Game 1:

Cleveland lived up to expectations taking their first home game of the series by 15 points and meeting the expectations that the majority of the league had for the series. An all round team effort lead the Cavs to victory and their bench was no exception, winning that battle as predicted in the preview with Kuzma and Cedi scoring 28 of the 33 bench points for the home team, while DFS was the only Raptor to get into double figures off the bench. The bigger backcourt of KCP and Murry outscored their counterparts for Cleveland but no one else was helping the Raptors get across the line in this one. Cleveland won the overall rebounding battle which is what so many of these matched will come down to.

Game 2:

Toronto regroups in game 2 and steals back homecourt advantage by getting an 18 point victory in the Gund Arena. The major change in the line up was the shifting of DeAndre Ayton from power forward where he started game one, to his natural centre position. From here he gathered 22 rebound and put up 17 points, which more than doubled his game 1 score. KCP went cold this game but Murry picked up his slack scoring 32. Holiday and McCollum were consistent from game 1 as you would expect, but the bench mob dropped off losing the bench battle 25-21. The rebound battle also swung back to Toronto as Gafford and Hartenstein swapped spots, while Meyer Leonard was dropped in favour of Vernon Carey Jnr, who showed why his coach had faith in him to get starting minutes, corralling 14 boards himself.

Game 3:

As we head into the north, Cleveland wrestled back the series lead with a smaller 8 point victory, off the back of a 62-54 rebound battle. A shortened rotation for both teams, and the switch back of the bigs for Cleveland to Hartenstein at the centre position saw him pull in 21 rebounds, which we saw some excellent bench rebounding from Kuzma and a surprising effort from CJ McCollum, which saw both players grab 9 each. Again Cleveland won the bench battle 35-22 and it seems to validate the previews assessment, but clearly GM Dylan was not about to sleep on his teams chances as he didn�t expect to see another game from Murray as we saw in Game 3, only scoring 13 off 26 shots.

Game 4:

We saw too much poutine for the home team as they let Cleveland escape from the icey north with two victories and to be only a single game away from taking the series. Dylan obviously was trying something as he had thrown Josh Green into the starting spot, which is the 3^rd Small Forward starter we�ve seen this series, unfortunately it was a swing and a miss, or perhaps 13 misses as Green could not hit a field goal all game. Lucky he got to the line to score 8 free throws to hold some value to his appearance. Ayton had another down scoring game, seemingly struggling against Hartenstein, but his rebounds were again amazing. The rebound battle fell to a dead heat in this match up, with Cleveland having Bridges show up and put up 21 to support his team through the their win.

Game 5:

Toronto feels more at home on the road and stops the series coming to a premature end as they pull out a 16 point victory, Green got dropped and DFS was returned to the starting spot, as he was in their only victory in the series so far. Green also preferred the swap back to the bench as he shared the top bench scoring honours with Austin Rivers with 12 apiece. This propelled the team to the victory as a total of 20 from the Cleveland bench was not enough to keep the team in the game, as their starters rested. The 3 pointers also helped Toronto get the advantage, as they hit over half their shots from deep, where Cleveland barely his 1 out of every 4.

Game 6:

Back to Toronto where the home team has struggled to win this series. They obviously owed it to their fanbase to give them a home playoff victory, and the team showed up to pay that debt. 13 points was the margin while holding Cleveland to a miserly 79 and only 30% shooting was what got them the win. By now the Raptors line up seems solid, with two games in a row with a 9 deep rotation including Bazley, Wright, Rivers, and Green. These 4 had the energy to get by the shorter rotation of Cleveland winning the bench war 25-16, with Green especially working hard to make up for his game 4 stinker and scoring 15 as the 6^th man. Kuzma and Cedi have been seen more on the back of milk cartons than box scores lately and Clevelands chances with holding 2 close out games fade away.

Game 7:

The formula was found and it was stuck to, Shams couldn�t counter the 9 man rotation as the Raptors steal the game 113-105 and the series against all predictions. KCP turned up with nails and hammer for the coffin, as he hammered home 36 points, while Ayton was digging the grave with his 33 points and 29 rebounds. This game was a nailbiter though heading into a massive overtime after a huge comeback from Toronto, who were down 13 heading into the final stanza. KCP scored 8 of the 14 in the overtime which blew out early and the momentum carried Toronto through to the Eastern Conference semi-finals.

An exciting series for all involved, Dylan proved to be a master simmer and his adjustments throughout the series were what was able to help his team overcome what many saw as a lack of talent in comparison to the Cavs who were a very strong team all season long. Shams is obviously looking for another shake up of his team, as almost as soon as the buzzer blew he was on the blower spruiking his wares.