![\"James](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-1923997220-e1776469774455.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
James Harden believes the Raptors are a “really good team.”<\/p>\n
Cleveland Cavaliers guard James Harden<\/a> praised the Toronto Raptor<\/a>s ahead of their playoff series, calling them a \u201creally good team.\u201d<\/p>\n The No. 4 Cavaliers and No. 5 Raptors<\/a> open their first-round Eastern Conference quarterfinals this Saturday in Cleveland. Although the sportsbooks<\/a> have the Cavaliers listed as -550 favorites to win the series and advance to the semifinals, Harden himself is not underestimating Toronto.<\/p>\n Speaking to reporters ahead of their playoff matchup with the Raptors, the Cavaliers star offered nothing but praise for an underrated Toronto team that far exceeded expectations this year.<\/p>\n James Harden is not underestimating the Toronto Raptors these playoffs:<\/p>\n \u201cWe know what we\u2019re facing. Toronto is a really good team. They\u2019ve been all year long. Probably one of the teams that the league hasn\u2019t really been talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, you have Scottie, you have <\/p>\n \u201cWe know what we\u2019re facing. Toronto is a really good team. They\u2019ve been all year long. Probably one of the teams that the league hasn\u2019t really been talking about,\u201d Harden said. \u201cObviously, you have Scottie (Barnes), you have Brandon (Ingram). Then they got other guys that impact the game, RJ (Barrett) and (Immanuel) Quickley, and other guys. We know what we have in front of us.\u201d<\/p>\n After missing the playoffs the last three years, the Raptors were projected to win 39.5 games this season. They ultimately won 46 games as they were able to beat the Vegas pre-season over\/under.<\/p>\n James Harden Joined the Cavaliers at the Trade Deadline<\/p>\n The Cavaliers made a splash at the trade deadline this year when they traded longtime guard Darius Garland<\/a> and a second-round pick to the Los Angeles Clippers<\/a> for Harden, who had requested a trade out of LA after the team was not tracking to be a playoff contender this year.<\/p>\n With the Cavaliers, Harden played in 26 games following the trade deadline, averaging 20.5 points per game<\/a> with a .466% shooting percentage. Though his scoring average was down from the 25.4 points per game he averaged with the Clippers, Harden also took fewer shots per game, but he was more effective with his shot selection. Overall, it was an impressive season for the 36-year-old Harden, who is playing with the sixth team of his NBA<\/a> career.<\/p>\n Harden Still Looking for First NBA Championship<\/p>\n Despite entering the NBA 17 years ago during the 2009-10 season, Harden has yet to taste what it\u2019s like to become an NBA champion, as winning a ring has eluded him so far in his career.<\/p>\n The closest that Harden got to winning the chip came during his third year in the league in 2011-2012, when the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> lost in five games to the Miami Heat<\/a>. Since then, Harden has yet to return to the finals, despite having played for a team that has made it to the playoffs every single year during his 17 seasons in the league.<\/p>\n Harden was hopeful that when they joined the Clippers a few years back, they would win an NBA title, but the Clippers went nowhere. That\u2019s why he requested a trade away from them, and the Cavaliers answered the bell when they sent Garland and a second-round pick at the trade deadline for him. So far, the trade has worked out well for both Harden and the Cavaliers, as the team is the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference playoff field. The Clippers, meanwhile, were eliminated from playoff contention when they were upset by the Golden State Warriors<\/a> in the Play-In Tournament game between the No. 9 and No. 10 seeds in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tAdam Martin<\/a> Adam Martin is a sports journalist with over 15 years of experience. He has a speciality in MMA, while also covering the Big 4 Sports. Adam is currently a contributor to Heavy.com, with previous experience working for The Toronto Star, Sportsnet, theScore, Bookies, BJPenn.com, and MMAOddsbreaker.com. More about Adam Martin<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Raptors\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty James Harden believes the Raptors are a “really good team.” Cleveland Cavaliers guard James Harden praised the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3770],"tags":[7,6,681,680,476,3820],"class_list":{"0":"post-712835","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-raptors","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-raptors","11":"tag-toronto","12":"tag-toronto-raptors","13":"tag-torontoraptors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116423009176244901","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=712835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}