Toronto Raptors: 3 reasons the season is over

Despite the best record in the Eastern Conference, the Toronto Raptors’ season has once again ended at the hands of LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Well, it happened again.

Despite the most wins in franchise history, coupled with the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, the Toronto Raptors couldn’t stop the meteor that is LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers from decimating their title hopes for the third consecutive season.

The Raptors really thought this was their year. After gaining home-court advantage throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs and revamping their offensive game plan, it really looked like Toronto could halt a Cavs team that had turned into a one-man LeBron show.

With each loss coming with a new heart-wrenching twist, Toronto’s confidence waned more and more, as James simply couldn’t be stopped with averages of 34.0 points, 11.3 assists and 8.3 rebounds per game, while five other Cavs averaged double figures to provide the help that LeBron had so desperately coveted.

Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan failed to step their games up, as both averaged under 20 points for the series.

Jonas Valanciunas was the lone bright spot for the Raptors, taking advantage of the lack of size on Cleveland’s end, averaging 16.3 points and 12.3 rebounds to go along with 1.8 blocks per game.

There isn’t really much shame in losing to a team led by the greatest player of his generation. After all, no Eastern Conference team has been able to solve that puzzle since 2010.

Rather, it was the length of the series that is sure to leave a sour taste in the mouths of the entire Raptors organization, until they hopefully get a chance to redeem themselves next season.