The Raptors' best shot has nothing to do with them

The odds, the record, the principals look one-sided.

The Cavaliers are prohibitive 1-to-9 favourites to beat Toronto in the NBA’s Eastern final and earn the right to get smoked by Golden State in the finals. After a fractious, seemingly disinterested regular season, the Cavs swept their two playoff series comfortably, while Toronto lurched and shuddered through the full seven-game distance each time in dispatching first Indiana, and then Miami. LeBron James is rested and over 13 years carries an all-time 36-9 W-L record against the Raptors, who come in minus starting centre Jonas Valanciunas until further notice and have a grand total of one day off to draw breath and prepare.

True, the Raptors won two out of three games during the regular season, a 56-win march and with this now deepest-ever push into the playoffs the 21-year-old franchise’s finest hours. But there’s not much hope it’ll go any further - except for one thing. Cleveland. Where no visitor appears unwelcome, no home lead appears safe -- where the Factory of Sadness is always open.

As a fellow traveller in the Ohioans’ sporting misery, nursing a lifelong affliction supporting the NFL Browns, I say this with the utmost sympathy: the gods of the games have already decided. They have over the years taken great delight in taking Cleveland to the edge of iconic and delirious moments, only to flip the bird.

Just call the B roll. Toronto has Carter’s home run and Devon White's catch on instant recall. Bautista’s bat-flip, Lowry’s clutch shooting, Sebastian Giovinco making a defender look silly -- these are good times for sports fans in the 6, and perhaps even Drake, who bestowed that inescapable and mindless handle, will deign to show up and give LeBron a piece of his courtside mind, or even more.  

Cleveland? Their answering number is Red Right 88, along with The Drive, The Fumble … if you’re ever in Cleveland and want to light up a room, just mention “Jose Mesa.” Then run for cover faster than you can say "Johnny Football".

Basketball fans of long memory will recall “The Shot”, a Michael Jordan dagger that ended a very good Cavs season in 1989. More recently, a 66-win team with probably their best chance of the LeBron 1.0 era fell to a barrage of Hedo Turkoglu. Hedo Turkoglu! Raptor fans cross themselves, spit twice and toss salt over their shoulders just at the mention.  

Even the city’s landmarks suggest it: Toronto has the CN Tower. Cleveland answers with the Terminal Tower. No wonder Mark Shapiro fled.

Finally, it’s been 52 years since the Browns gave Cleveland its last major championship -- three years longer than the Maple Leafs’ drought. Hard as it is to imagine for Toronto, there is a place more forlorn, where the karmic wheel that’s spun past Toronto’s No. 1 sporting obsession since 1967 has been out of the station even longer. The Raptors find themselves there, starting Tuesday night.

It's the great cosmic equalizer: because it's Cleveland, the Raptors have a shot.