This years second round matchup will feature two rival teams who faced off against eachother last year in the Eastern Conference finals, the Toronto Raptors and the Cleveland Cavaliers. This series was a thriller in 2016, with the Cavaliers pulling out the victory in 6 games and moving onto the NBA finals. Both teams have huge fan bases, and have a passionate home court crowd, so we should be in for another treat in this years NBA playoff battle that will kick off in the month of May.
Game one of the series
Date: Monday - May 1st
Time: 7:00pm (ET)
Venue: Quicken Loans Arena
TV: TNT
What to expect: In game one of the series with their home crowd's loud support, you should expect to see the Cleveland Cavaliers start strong in this series.
They have had over a week off since their last game after sweeping their first round series, they will be antsy to get this series started and should be able to hold a solid lead and win. There is also a good chance the Raptors come to play though, all-stars DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry could defiantly perform at a high level and make this a competitive game. There is a chance The North could squeeze through with a win in this game, although the odds don't favor them.
Game two
Date: Wednesday - May 3rd
Time: 7:00pm (ET)
Venue: Quicken Loans Arena
TV: TNT
What to expect: After the likely game one victory for the Cavaliers, we should expect to see yet another victory from the Cleveland squad in front of their home fans.
They have been very successful in winning game two after winning game one of the series in recent years, so if the Cavs do indeed win game one comfortably, a game two victory is almost inevitable. Another reason the Cavaliers will likely take this game home would be if the Raptors do indeed snatch a victory in the first match, Cleveland would be looking for redemption and even up the series at one a piece.
There is hope though for Toronto, they have been very successful in turnaround games in recent history.
Game three back in Canada
Date: Friday - May 5th
Time: 7:00pm (ET)
Venue: Air Canada Centre
TV: ESPN
What to expect: The Toronto Raptors should be slight favorites in this game, being in front of their home fans for the first time in the series should be a huge lift for them.
But we should expect a Cavalier team that is motivated to grab a victory during an important game like this one in the series. This is a very tough one to call, if the Cavaliers go up 2-0 in the series they will probably be riding lots of momentum going into this game and could very well upset the Raptors once again. If the Raptors had already won a game or two, or even kept the games very close, they might be able to ride the support of their fans and gain a lead on the Cavaliers. But as we saw in game three of the first round, no lead is safe from the firepower of Cleveland, and the Raptors would need to be near perfect to snatch the victory.
Game four - possible sweep?
Date: Sunday - May 7th
Time: 3:30pm (ET)
Venue: Air Canada Centre
TV: ABC
What to expect: This may be the final game of the series according to many expert predictions.
The Cavaliers will come into this game looking for a victory and to finalize the sweep if they indeed go up 3-0 in the series. But we should expect a very motivated Toronto Raptor team, if in fact their season is on the line, they will likely play harder than they have before and it could result in an upset over the Cavs, although LeBron's Cavaliers have never been beaten when going up 3-0 in a series. If the series is closer than this, whether it be Cavs up 2-1 or Raptors up 2-1, this will be a very important game, it could decide the fate of the series. Because if one team goes up 3-1 over their opponent, it is almost a done deal. But if history has told us anything, a 3-1 lead is never a definite done deal, there may very well be a lot of basketball left to play.
Game five, six, seven
These games have not yet been decided as the series may or may not need to go to these games. If so, game five will be played in Cleveland, game six will be in Toronto and game seven will be back in Cleveland as they had the better regular season record.
