Welcome to the unfamiliar territory of Round 2 of the NBA playoffs. Your Toronto Raptors are the hosts and begin their tour of duty at home against the Miami Heat.
What does Game 1 look like? We need to consider what happened in each team’s previous series for some clues.
Miami
The Heat won this series because of their defense. They held Charlotte to an average of 90.3 Points Per Game [PPG] while scoring 99.1 themselves.
By contrast, the Raptors averaged 92.3 PPG and allowed Indiana 93.7. Winning a series despite being outscored is an anomaly unlike to be duplicated.