Like Houston in the west the Toronto Raptors are running away with the Eastern Conference, having won 55 games and are 3.5 games above the second place Boston Celtics. The Raptors have been in contention in the East for the last 4 years and have come as close as anyone to taking down the Cavs when they took 2 games off them in the 2016 Conference finals. The Raptors in previous seasons have been good but not great. Always challenging but never really convincing anyone that they were going to get to the finals. Part of this was down to the Raptors style of play. Last season the Raptors ranked 24^th in the league in pace, 22^nd in 3-point attempts and dead last in assists. The analytics show that leading in these categories translates into winning basketball games.

Last year was the final straw, after struggling in the first round against the Milwaukee Bucks the Raptors were then swept by the Cavs in the second round. Raptor’s president, Masai Ujiri, agreed that the organization needed a “culture reset” and announced in the summer that the Raptors would be playing less one on one and more team Basketball, “it’s easy to defend in my opinion, when you play one on one. It’s predictable we feel we have to go in another direction and not just pound, pound, pound something that hasn’t worked”.

However this positive change would not be brought about through huge roster changes. Ujiri renewed the contract of long term coach Paul Casey and resigned star players Kyle Lowry and Serge Ibaka on 3 year deals. The change that they promised would be coming from within the organization. So far this season the Raptors are 3^rd in the league in 3 pointers attempted and 6^th in assists per game and this has meant they have the 2^nd highest win percentage in the NBA. The players have embraced the new style and it has led to a lot of talk that this could finally be their year.

They have had much more production from their bench this year and might have the deepest squad in the east. The only question mark about the Raptors is a similar one that faces Houston. Whether their two stars, Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, can show up when it matters. After losing to the Cavs last year DeRozanalmost admitted that Lebron couldn’t be stopped saying “any team would win if they had Lebron”. This inferiority complex was not a good luck for DeRozan or the Raptors and is something that they need to get over if they are going to get past Lebron. This is probably the weakest the Cavaliers have looked since Lebron came back and with Philadelphia looking the might have a dynasty in the future this looks like the Raptors best chance at a finals appearances. They say names are made in the regular season but fame is made in the playoffs

It’s time for DeRozan to elevate himself from established star, to superstar and hes going to need too show up  in every game if the Raptors are to have any chance of making the finals.