Toronto Raptors: 3 takeaways from Game 4 vs. Cavaliers

2. Mental block in Brontario

This isn’t as simple as “the Raptors choked” or “LeBron is the G.O.A.T.,” contrary to what NBA Twitter would like you to believe. It’s a bizarre combination of the two, in the form of a mental block the likes of which I can’t personally recall seeing in the playoffs.

Heading into the series, the Raptors were decisively the better team. They had a top-five offense, a top-five defense and the league’s best bench. DeMar DeRozan was in the middle of a career year, they had a leading Coach of the Year candidate in Casey and their revamped offense no longer relied on isolation, favoring ball movement and 3-point shooting in a modern playing style.

The Cavs, meanwhile, were limping into the series after barely outlasting the Indiana Pacers in a seven-game first round battle. They had little time to rest before Game 1 against Toronto, they didn’t have home-court advantage and a 37-year-old Kyle Korver was LeBron’s best teammate at the time.

None of it mattered. Why? Because the Toronto Raptors are never going to beat a fully-powered LeBron James team.

Of course, there’s the obvious problem that Lowry and DeRozan once again wilted under the spotlight, preferring to hide in the King’s massive shadow.

You can see the stark contrast between DeRozan’s regular season and playoff numbers, and “Stark” seems like the correct word considering how fast the “King o’ the North” was wiped out by the real King.

• Regular season DeRozan:  23.0 PPG, 5.2 APG, 3.9 RPG, 45.6 FG%, 31.0 3P%
• Conference semis DeRozan:  16.8 PPG, 2.8 APG, 4.0 RPG, 43.9 FG%, 0.0 3P%

Lowry’s shooting percentages look great on paper, but he hardly had an impact, taking fewer shot attempts and suddenly becoming a defensive liability. In any case, the Raptors had zero chance of winning this series with LeBron singlehandedly outplaying their two stars:

So why does this keep happening? For starters, as much as the Raptors put forth their best product ever this season, they never addressed the “LeBron stopper” problem they’ve always had. No one can “stop” LeBron, but expecting a rookie (Anunoby) and a second-year wing (Siakam) to contain the King was always going to be a fool’s errand.

The rest of Cleveland’s supporting cast getting involved didn’t help, but it just goes to show the mental aspect of this matchup extends beyond “Toronto always collapses in the playoffs.” Not only can the Raptors not get out of their own heads, but the Cavs know they can beat this team in the playoffs. Every. Single. Time.

It shows up in the little things, like the Cavs’ ability to not only produce good shots against a top-five defense, but to knock them all down. In their minds, this is an inferior opponent, and that confidence when shooting the rock shows:

When it comes to LeBron James, the Raptors simply don’t believe they can win. It’s almost hard to blame them for thinking that way because looking at the track record, they’re 100 percent correct.

There’s a reason when the Cavs fell to No. 4 in the East, every Raptors fan — even the most confident ones, who had done their research and saw that every shred of evidence pointed to Toronto as the better team — shuddered at the thought of a second round matchup.

This isn’t just another case of the Raptors choking under pressure. This is a case of the Raptors never being able to get over the LeBron James hump.