Cavaliers Get Well-Deserved Boost in NBA Analyst's Playoff Prediction

The No. 4 seed Cleveland Cavaliers go up against the No. 5 Toronto Raptors in the first round of the 2026 NBA playoff series starting Saturday, April 18 at Rocket Arena. The game starts at 1 p.m. ET and will air live on Prime Video.

So, which team will win this series and advance to take on either the Detroit Pistons or Charlotte Hornets? That’s the million dollar question, but the team is getting a boost in the latest round of playoff predictions from Zach Kram of ESPN.

In a Tuesday, April 14 feature for ESPN, Kram has the Cavaliers taking it in five games. That would pretty much mean a blowout.

“Cleveland has more talent than Toronto, but Toronto swept the season series 3-0; the Celtics are the only other Eastern Conference team that did so against the Cavaliers this season,” he says in the feature, adding not to reading “too much into those regular-season results” because all of the game took place when James Harden wasn’t in Cleveland yet.

“Cleveland also made an unsustainably low 28% of its 3-point attempts against Toronto, compared with 36% over the full season,” he adds. “And Toronto, which ranked 26th in made 3s this season, isn’t well-suited to take advantage of Cleveland’s weakness defending the arc.”

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Considering the state of these teams today, Kram predicts that Toronto “won’t carry their regular-season success into the postseason” and that the “Cavaliers should advance with relative ease.”

So, is he right? One has to question if this win will come with “relative ease.” There are no easy wins in the NBA, and that’s even more the reality during the playoffs. So, I don’t believe this will be an easy win, but it’s certainly a winnable series, and the Cavalier are, and should be, clear favorites.

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There’s something to be said for the Cavaliers’ performance during the latter part of the season. They have momentum on their side, and that’ll make for wind on their backs going into this series. I have the Cavs taking it in seven games as a difficult fight but one that they ultimately win.

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This story was originally published April 15, 2026 at 11:09 AM.