Any observer who believed a Toronto Raptors-Cleveland Cavaliers playoff matchup would be different this spring has had a rude awakening over the past three days.
With the Cavs up 2-0 and heading home for Games 3 and 4, many are ready to bring out the brooms. But Raptors leading scorer DeMar DeRozan is at least sounding confident, even if there's little evidence his team possesses any confidence in the shadow of LeBron James.
"We down two, OK," DeRozan said after Thursday's 128-110 Game 2 defeat, via ESPN's Dave McMenamin. "It's the first one to win four. It's not over. Take it one game at a time and go from there."
It's a cliche, but one the Raptors have no choice but to trot out.
The odds are greatly stacked against them: James is 21-0 in his career when up 2-0 in a playoff series, and only four times in NBA history has a team come back to win a best-of-seven series after losing the first two games at home. Toronto is 0-6 all-time when trailing 0-2 in the playoffs, and has now lost eight straight postseason games to the Cavs.
"It's a team effort," DeRozan said. "Can't just rely on one guy guarding a player like Kevin Love. We all have to be locked in and pull strings together defensively."
Related: Resurgent Love at the center of Cavs' stunning Game 2 rout
Coming into Game 2, Love was shooting 6-for-18 in the restricted area in the playoffs. On Thursday, he had his way with the Raptors inside, going 8-for-10 from five feet or less, and finishing with 31 points and 11 rebounds. His dominance partly resulted from the Cavs figuring out mismatches off switches that left the 6-foot-10, 250-pound Love covered by DeRozan or C.J. Miles.
It's going to take a near-miracle for the Raptors to avoid duplicating last season's fate of a second-round sweep at the hands of the Cavaliers. But DeRozan won't stop talking in motivational tones, regardless of the ominous situation.
"We thrive off adversity," DeRozan said. "Every single guy on this team, we thrive off it. We understand where we're at and we're going to fight."
