LeBron James has been to seven consecutive NBA Finals, all in the Eastern Conference. As such, every Eastern Conference team should be gunning for LeBron. The top goal for every team in the conference should be to take him down, and that includes that Toronto Raptors. Raptors General Manager Masai Ujiri confirmed on Thursday that that is indeed his team’s goal. From Michael Lee of The Vertical:
“Our job is to beat him,” Ujiri recently told The Vertical. “You have to figure it out. If not, then go play in some other league or something. Go play in Greece. Our jobs, and the jobs of the players, [are] to figure out how to beat those guys. If not, you might as well give them the championship before it starts. I understand how good he is and I understand how good those teams are, but those things end. At some point, somewhere, somehow, we as leaders of our group, we have to figure out a way and motivate our players and give them the confidence to go out there and compete.”
The Raptors fell to the Cavaliers in the second round of the playoffs in a sweep last season. After re-signing Kyle Lowry and Serge Ibaka, the Raps return with a very similar roster to last season.
