How many games can the Raptors win against the Cavs?

Yesterday's game one showed the Cavaliers are ready to beat the Raptors easily and advance to the conference finals. The Raptors team does not seem to believe they have any chance of beating Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, and if you don't believe in your team, in your talents, your teammates, you'll never get the upset done. Toronto is a team that cannot dominate the other team in the playoffs. The final score of yesterday's game was 116-105, with Lebron James getting a double with 35 points and 10 rebounds, while Kyrie showed up after a mediocre series in the first round, and added 24 points and 10 assists. Offensively, as we have discussed a couple of times in our previous articles, the Cavaliers are pure entertainment, unstoppable. Their problem all season long has been their defensive side. But, with a team in the Toronto Raptors who have the 'weapons' to both attack, with Derozan, Lowry, Ibaka and defend with Ibaka (one of the league's best interior defenders) and P.J Tucker a great defensive player, to not be good on the defensive side of the floor will be a problem for the Cavaliers.

Game 1

Despite not having the passion, the belief that the Raptors can beat the Cavaliers and advance to the conference finals, the Raptors can defeat the Cavaliers in two games in this series. However, two games at the moment seem more than enough for the Raptors who do not seem to have the power to do it. Once, they go back home and analyze the game Cleveland is playing with Lebron James as the point forward, Kyrie as the scorer and Kevin Love grabbing the rebounds and throwing outlet passes that can lead to easy fast break points, the Raptors can win two games in this series. But to do all of that, and get these two wins, the Raptors have to be a lot better on the defensive side. With the Bucks, when needed they held them to only 76 and 89 points, while yesterday they gave up easily 116 points in a second round playoff game with the defending champs. Now, the Cavaliers have an unstoppable offense and are certainly not in the same category as the Bucks, but to score 116 points in the second round against a great defensive team in the Raptors, is something that shows and proves the great offensive weapons of the Cavs and the poor team effort of the Raptors in yesterday's game. If Lebron James and Kyrie Irving continue to play like this through the whole series, the Raptors have no chance of challenging the Cavs. If P.J Tucker and Ibaka slows down Lebron, the Raptors can challenge the Cavaliers in Toronto and win one or maybe both games in the Jurassic Park. 

Moreover, Derozan has to attack the paint a lot more in the upcoming games for the Raptors to take two games from the Cavaliers. Derozan and Lowry have to combine for 55-60 in every game for the Raptors to make this step in beating the Cavs in at least two games. Derozan has to get to the free throw line more often if he wants to get the defensive power forwards and centers into foul trouble, but also score some easy points on the free throw line. However, the biggest issue the Raptors have to face off is something that was also mentioned earlier in the article, and that is to believe in themselves, and their teammates, and believe that they can pull off the upset and advance to the second consecutive conference finals, following last year's accomplishment. 

Finally, the Raptors, even though they are coming out of a bad loss in the first game against the Cavs in the second round, I believe can bounce back and win a couple games against the defending champs.