Halfway to Finals, Warriors and Cavs remain on collision course

Like a Colossus, and we petty men
Walk under his huge legs and peep about
To find ourselves dishonorable graves.
- William Shakespeare (Julius Caesar)

Pardon the Shakespearean verbosity, but this is basically how the Utah Jazz and Toronto Raptors should feel right now. Twenty days into the NBA playoffs, their current competition - the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers - are cruising, both undefeated and both halfway to the 12 wins needed to reach each other in the Finals yet again.

In Thursday's 115-104 Game 2 win, the Warriors picked up where they left off in Game 1, rolling over the Jazz early with their machine-like offense and trapping, helping defense. Golden State has yet to trail in the series, and even a bounce-back performance from Gordon Hayward in the second half wasn't enough to bring the Jazz closer than six points.

It's that defense that has the Dubs so dominant in the playoffs. Hayward shot better in Game 2, but he was still harassed constantly by the likes of Shaun Livingston. With Draymond Green as their central disrupter, the Warriors lead the NBA postseason in defensive and net rating.

On offense, while some debate why Kevin Durant would defer to Stephen Curry, jack-of-all-trades Green is doing everything that's needed. On Thursday, he was 5-of-8 from beyond the arc. In other words, with the exception of Steve Kerr's absence, it's a typical Warriors spring.

Back in the East, Raptors observers have experienced a rude wake-up call to the flawed notion that Cleveland's late-season defensive indifference was a legitimate Achilles' heel on their designs of a third straight NBA Finals.

Sure, the Cavaliers are trying to become the first team since the 2001 Lakers to finish outside the top 10 in regular-season defensive rating and win the championship, and that's because they can. Other teams don't have LeBron James.

So while there's no error in suggesting the Raptors are probably the next-best team after Cleveland in the Eastern Conference, facts are demonstrating now that they're just not good enough. That's why the narrative that James was potentially disrespecting Serge Ibaka is irrelevant; it's LeBron James, the best player of his generation, a 6-foot-8, 270-pound freak of nature who can have his way with the league - which includes routinely setting up shop behind the arc.

He's an outlier, and that's all there is to it.

(Photo courtesy: Action Images)

Defensive question marks? What difference do they make when the Cavs are this hot offensively? Good defensive efforts, like the one Toronto started with in Game 2, have been powerless to stop them. Through six postseason contests, Cleveland leads all playoff teams with a 116.9 offensive rating and a true shooting percentage of 61.2, connecting on close to 43 percent of its 3-point attempts, including 54.5 percent on Wednesday.

To be clear, the Cavs and the Warriors aren't there yet. Anything can happen, and like Ja Rule's vision of an oceanfront concert, dreams can be derailed. The Raptors and Jazz return home down 2-0 with at the very least, a history of hostile arena environments for their competition.

Meanwhile, the Celtics and Wizards battle with one eye on LeBron. Out west, Warriors haters appear to have slightly more of a prayer - even if it's wishful thinking that a series against the Rockets could devolve far enough into fireworks, or that a showdown with San Antonio would finally expose Golden State to some Spurs spring excellence.

Those are long shots. The Cavs and Warriors were built to play each other in June, and that's probably what they're going to do.