{"id":712954,"date":"2026-04-18T05:22:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T05:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/712954\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T05:22:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T05:22:15","slug":"james-harden-admits-the-cavaliers-are-not-overlooking-the-raptors-in-the-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/712954\/","title":{"rendered":"James Harden admits the Cavaliers are not overlooking the Raptors in the Playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> will play against the Toronto Raptors<\/a> in the first round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs. It will be one of the most underrated series of the postseason because they match up well against each other.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Toronto had a rough second half of the season, while Cleveland found their form in the same time frame. Now, they are on a collision course, but it seems the Cavaliers<\/a> are not being complacent about the Raptors<\/a> ahead of the series.<\/p>\n

James Harden knows the Raptors will be a tough matchup<\/p>\n

Before the Cavaliers started the season, most people expected them to be a top seed. They finished the previous season, eclipsing the 60-win mark, but that was not the case this season.<\/p>\n

They regressed, which is why they made a major trade for James Harden at the deadline. They sent the beloved Darius Garland away to the Los Angeles Clippers<\/a>, but they got a former MVP in return.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0James Harden speaks about the value of winning a title with the Cavs<\/a><\/p>\n

Now, they are playing against the Raptors, which will be a tough matchup. Toronto has one of the mightiest defensive cores in the league, led by Scottie Barnes, which will be a fantastic matchup against Evan Mobley and his role as the Cavs’ defensive anchor.<\/p>\n

Harden and the rest of the Cavs know the quality of their opponents. That is why they are being careful to speak about the Raptors and overlooking them because the Cavs know who they are playing against.<\/p>\n

“We 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,” Harden said about what team they are playing against.<\/p>\n

“Obviously, you have Scottie, you have Brandon. Then they got other guys that impact the game, RJ, and Quickley, and other guys.”<\/p>\n

Moving forward, the Cavaliers will be up against the wall with the Raptors. It will not be a fun matchup for the players, but it will be a nail-biting series for anyone watching.<\/p>\n

More NBA news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cleveland Cavaliers will play against the Toronto Raptors in the first round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3772],"tags":[7,306,305,193,3846,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-712954","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-cavaliers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-cavaliers","10":"tag-cleveland","11":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","12":"tag-clevelandcavaliers","13":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116424038676546515","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712954","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=712954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}