Are the Boston Celtics or the Toronto Raptors in a better position to take down the Cleveland Cavaliers this season?
No matter what happens in the regular season, LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers are going to be the team to beat in the Eastern Conference. The good news is that it has been a long time since a James team has looked this bad, and both the Boston Celtics and Toronto Raptors are better then they have been in previous matchups.
James has been playing out of his mind, but the Cavaliers have not looked this vulnerable since James came back, and both the Celtics and the Raptors are thinking this is going to be their year to finally end his remarkable Finals streak.
The problem is that both the Raptors and the Celtics are hard to trust, because they have not even been competitive in the past against the Cavaliers. So what if the Celtics get that number one seed, that is exactly where they were last season. The Raptors are playing a different kind of game this season, but it will still come down to DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry showing up at a time that they never have in the past.
It is fine to be skeptical about either team’s chances at taking down the Cavaliers this season, but this is the best opportunity in over half a decade to finally take down the King.
More from Hardwood Houdini
- Boston Celtics’ two-way contract decision will be made after training camp
- Proposed trade sends Boston Celtics playoff killer to the Cs from rival
- ‘Face of Germany’s stunning run’ in FIBA World Cup not the only ex-Boston Celtics player to win gold
- Proposed Boston Celtics trade target pitched for reunion with fired coach
- Battle For Banner 18: Will Boston Celtics battle historical foe in 2024 Finals?
The Celtics and Raptors are close enough in the standings that you cannot make that the difference when talking about what they are going to do in the playoffs. Home court could be a major factor, but that is still wide open right now.
The Celtics and the Raptors are in completely different positions with their franchise, and that gives them both a different kind of edge at being in a better position to take down the Cavaliers.
When you look at the Raptors, they are a finished team. They are playing with a lot more ball movement, and DeRozan is starting to do all the things that everyone said held him back in the past. They function great with a core that knows how to play with each other.
The Raptors are not asking Lowry and DeRozan to do quite as much, and their overall team will have a much bigger impact on their playoff success this season. The Raptors are improved, but the problem is that it is still going to come down to the same thing come playoff time, will Lowry and DeRozan show up.
If both of them are at their best and the rest of the team is holding things together on both ends, then you have to give the Raptors the edge to take down the Cavaliers right now. They are in a much more stable place, have a lot more experience and know exactly what they want from everyone on the court.
The Celtics, on the other hand, are all over the place. A lot of their roles are undefined, they have three rookies playing prominent roles, and they are still discovering what the identity of this team is going to be. The Celtics know they have to improve in a lot of ways, and have been a lot more inconsistent that the Raptors this season.
The one edge they have is that they do not have to worry about what happened in previous years, because this is a completely transformed core. James has less of an understanding of what he needs to do to beat this version of the Celtics and there can be an advantage there.
The Celtics also have a lot more room to improve from where they are right now. There is a lot less uncertainty with the Celtics, so that makes them a lot harder to trust. Even if it is hard to trust them, they still have a higher ceiling than the Raptors this season. Even if Gordon Hayward does not return, the team clearly has a lot more room to improve on offense, and have a lot of young players that still have a lot of work they need to do building up to the playoffs.
Next: Tatum Still not Taking Enough Shots
It should be a great race to see who gets that top seed in the East, and it is fascinating that the Cavaliers are as far behind as they are. There is still way too much time in this season to expect James to finally miss the Finals, but as more time passes it feels more and more possible.