The time has come to jump on the Toronto Raptors bandwagon

The NBA's number one labialise of playoffs start sabbatum, and for the first time in four years, the Toronto Raptors will be in the fight.

The Raptors begin a best-of-seven series against the Cleveland Cavaliers at 1 p.m. ET Saturday.

And while the pundits may not be calling for Toronto to come out on top, don't try telling star Scottie Barnes the Raptors are the underdogs.

"That shit don't matter," he told reporters this week.

This is the confidence fans will want to see their team summon in the days ahead.

Here's what you need to know about the Raptors as they begin their latest playoff journey.

It's hard to forget it hasn't been that long since the Raptors won it all, against the Golden State Warriors, in 2019.

But the season that followed was the one abruptly halted by COVID. The playoffs ended up happening way later than normal and occurring within a so-called bubble. The Raptors lost the Eastern Conference semifinals to the Boston Celtics in September 2020.

Toronto failed to advance to the playoffs in the 2020-21 season, but returned to the post-season the following year and lost the first-round series to the Philadelphia 76ers.

More recently, the Raptors have been going through a rebuild, which began under Masai Ujiri, who left the organization last year.

The Raptors put together a 46-36 season, in which the team had a winning record both at home (24-17) and on the road (22-19).

Toronto went 33-19 against fellow Eastern Conference clubs, yet the teams above them — the Detroit Pistons, New York Knicks and Boston Celtics — can all point to regular games where they’ve stomped the Raptors.

How Toronto fared against the east's better teams is important, because the Raptors play a conference rival in Cleveland and will continue to do so in the next two rounds of the playoffs — if they make it that far.

The only time a team from the east will play a team from the Western Conference will be in the NBA Finals.

Cleveland finished fourth in the east, with a 52-30 record. That was one spot above the fifth-ranked Raptors.

Yet Toronto went 3-0 against Cleveland during the regular season. The two teams last played one another in November — a month in which the Raptors went 12-3, with two of those wins coming against the Cavs.

Since then, Cleveland’s made a big trade for James Harden, a 11-time all-star and lethal scorer, and the team has also largely recovered from a string of injuries that hampered their roster.

The Cavs' biggest star, though, is Donovan Mitchell, an electric shooting guard, and Evan Mobley, a young big man who was drafted in the same year as the Raptors' Barnes.

Historically, the Raptors haven't fared well against the Cavs in the playoffs: LeBron James-led Cleveland squads swept Toronto in the Eastern Conference semi-final in 2018, just as they did in 2017. Toronto also lost to Cleveland in six games in the Eastern Conference final in 2016.

The Akron, Ohio,-born James no longer plays for Cleveland these days, so he won't be a factor in this series.

Veteran Brandon Ingram is the Raptors' leading scorer, averaging 21.5 points per game.

Close behind him in scoring are Canada's R.J. Barrett (19.3 points per game) and Barnes (18.1 points per game).

Cleveland's top scorers are the aforementioned Mitchell (with 27.9 points per game) and Harden (20.5 points per game since joining the Cavs), ahead of Mobley (18.2 points per game).

Mitchell and Harden are also among the top-15 most prolific sharpshooters in the NBA this season: Mitchell was tied for 10th in the most three-pointers made (224) and Harden was 15th on that same list (215).

The only Raptor in the top 50 is Immanuel Quickley (in 32nd spot, with 178 three-point shots made). He was reported to be dealing with a mild hamstring strain ahead of the playoffs.

Harden has played in 173 playoff games during his 17-season NBA career. But he's yet to win a championship.

A question for some is whether he'll show up.

“We know what he can do,” Barnes said, calling Harden an all-time great scorer.

Harden, for his part, says the mid-season trade that brought him to Cleveland represents his best shot to finally win a title and get a championship ring.

"That's why I'm here," Harden said this week.

Raptors coach Darko Rajaković told reporters this week that a chance to play for a championship is something the Toronto club has been working towards since the start of the season.

While he said the Raptors can take some things away from their season series with Cleveland, he also noted those matchups came early in the year, so things have changed.

Rajaković said the team will be playing for the fans and the city — but the central opinions that guide them on the court will be based on players, coaches and staff.

"We are ready," he said. "We're going to block all the outside noise and really focus on us."

The Raptors' 46-win total at the end of the regular season was the highest for Toronto since 2021-22.

Toronto has won 47 or more regular-season games on 10 occasions (including during the COVID-shortened 2019-20 season) — the 11th best win-total in franchise history.

The Raptors entered the NBA for the start of the 1995-96 season. It would take more than two decades for Toronto to win its first and only NBA championship to date in 2019.

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