For years, the Toronto Raptors built their identity as one of the most consistent regular-season teams in the NBA. They won 50-plus games, earned top seeds, and developed an identity as a tough team around their star duo of Demar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry, alongside a talented supporting cast.
Yet every postseason, their path seemed to end with LeBron James standing in the way.
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One of those Raptors players, Jonas Valanciunas, recently looked back on those playoff battles, offering a blunt and sobering reflection on just how overwhelming Bron was, capturing what an entire fan base felt in real time. No matter how prepared Toronto was, the outcome felt inevitable.
The “LeBronto” era
From 2016 to 2018, LeBron‘s Cleveland Cavaliers met Toronto in the playoffs three times. The Raptors went 12-2 against James in those series, including back-to-back sweeps in 2017 and 2018.
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“We were bumping right into him, and our journey was over,” Valanciunas recalled. “He was playing the really, really tough basketball. One of the greatest basketball players ever.”
In the 2016 Eastern Conference Finals, Bron averaged 26.0 points, 8.5 rebounds and 6.7 assists, controlling the series with physicality and playmaking. The following year was even more lopsided, as he posted 36.0 points per game against Toronto, repeatedly dismantling their defense with pull-up threes, bully-ball drives, and pinpoint passes en route to a sweep.
By 2018, Toronto fans hoped the year would be different. After all, the Raptors would finish first in the East and had a more complete team, featuring young yet reliable players such as OG Anunoby, Fred VanVleet and Pascal Siakam. However, fans would later realize that Bron’s dominance was about to reach its peak.
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The King averaged 34.0 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 11.3 assists in another series sweep, capped by a game-winning one-handed floater in Game 3, a moment that symbolized the Raptors’ helplessness against him and completely etched the nickname “LeBronto” into basketball lore.
Toronto tried everything: defensive adjustments, lineup changes and even shifting their offensive philosophy. None of it mattered. LeBron looked like he knew the Raptors inside and out — with DeRozan even admitting in 2020 that he saw James actually knowing what plays they were going to run.
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“I remember, it was a play we was trying to run and one of our teammates forgot the play, and Bron told him the play,” DeRozan said. “Like it was some crazy s—t. We calling a play and he was like, ‘What?’ And Bron told him what our play was.”
LeBronto indirectly led to Toronto’s ring in 2019
Even today, fans continue to mock the Raptors for their repeated playoff losses to LeBron and the Cavaliers. However, with the benefit of hindsight, those defeats served as necessary wake-up calls, prompting the organization to confront its limitations and rethink the team’s direction.
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That self-reflection ultimately led to a franchise-altering decision: trading the beloved DeRozan for Kawhi Leonard the following year.
Those painful exits pushed Toronto to look inward and evolve into a more complete, adaptable team, one capable of surviving the highest levels of playoff basketball. In that sense, the losses to LeBron laid the groundwork for the championship that followed. When the Raptors finally lifted the chip in 2019, the triumph felt even sweeter because of everything that came before it.
The “LeBronto” era now stands as a lasting testament to LBJ’s greatness. He defined one of the most painful chapters in their history, while indirectly shaping the path toward their first title. Few players can claim they both shattered a franchise’s championship dreams and helped mold them without ever wearing the jersey, but James, in all his dominance, can.
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This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Feb 2, 2026, where it first appeared in the Old School section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.