The Cavaliers swept their first two series and won the first two games of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Raptors to become the fourth team in NBA history to open a post-season with 10 straight victories.
They matched the 2012 San Antonio Spurs, though the 1989 and 2001 Western Conference Los Angeles Lakers had won their first eleven games en route to sweeping the first three rounds of those playoffs.
Cleveland wound up repeating this feat the next year when they swept the conference opening round, semifinal round, and winning the first 2 conference final games; this feat would be surpassed in those same 2017 NBA playoffs, when the Golden State Warriors won 15 straight games.
In Game 3, Kyrie Irving hit the tough corner 3 late in the 4th quarter, with only 0.7 seconds remaining on the shot clock.
After Kemba Walker misses a stepback jumper over Hassan Whiteside, Courtney Lee gets the offensive rebound and hits a clutch 3 with 25.2 seconds left.
Game 4 saw him injure his knee, as he slipped on a wet spot on the floor at the Toyota Center in Houston.
In Game 4, both teams were locked in battle until in the final seconds, a jump ball was called between Dennis Schröder and LeBron James, and the Hawks desperately won the tip, but the game-winning shot by Paul Millsap bounced off the rim as the Cavs make a second straight sweep.
Even though the Raptors lost Game 1, Kyle Lowry hits a game-tying shot from half-court at the buzzer to force overtime.
The play is similar to Chauncey Billups' half-court buzzer beater against the Nets in the 2004 playoffs, that also forced overtime.
They closed out the series in Game 5, to advance and face the Oklahoma City Thunder, who defeated the 67-win San Antonio Spurs in their second round matchup.
However, in Game 3, the Raptors dominated the first half, building up an 18-point lead, the largest deficit the Cavaliers faced all playoffs long.
DeMar DeRozan scored 32 points and Bismack Biyombo grabbed a Raptors' franchise record 26 rebounds.
Things would get worse in Game 4 as the Cavs were unable to slow down Kyle Lowry who scored 20 first-half points.
Cleveland once again attempted a second half comeback, only this time they turned the game into a back and forth battle.
Lowry's drive and score at the basket sealed the win for Toronto, tying the series at 2 games apiece.
[24] Teams from the two cities met again less than five months later (and again in the penultimate round of the playoffs) when the Cleveland Indians beat the Toronto Blue Jays in the 2016 American League Championship Series.
During the Thunder-Warriors series, Draymond Green became the subject of multiple controversial plays against Oklahoma City players, most notably Steven Adams.
Television cameras appeared to show Draymond Green kicking Steven Adams in the groin while he was attempting a layup.
[26] Returning to Oracle Arena in Game 5, the Warriors held on to defeat the Thunder 120–111, cutting their series deficit to 3–2.
After the Warriors thwarted Oklahoma City's brief comeback attempt in the fourth quarter, Golden State won 96–88 and became the 10th team to win an NBA playoff series after being down 3 games to 1.
After receiving his sixth personal foul in the fourth quarter, Stephen Curry was ejected for the first time in his career after throwing his mouthpiece at a Cavaliers fan.
Late in the fourth quarter, with the score tied at 89, Andre Iguodala received a bounce pass from Curry.
On their next possession, James was fouled by Green while attempting a dunk, and made one of his two free throws to increase the lead to four.
While the Warriors managed to get the ball into the hands of Curry for a chance to cut the deficit to one, he was guarded well by Cavaliers guard Iman Shumpert, and Curry was forced to take a sub par shot that missed, sealing the game as the city of Cleveland, Ohio's 52-year sports curse finally ended.
In Canada, national coverage is divided between the TSN and Sportsnet families of channels, with each group carrying approximately half of all games featuring the Toronto Raptors (produced independently of the U.S. national broadcasts regardless of round), and half of all other games (simulcast from the applicable U.S. broadcaster).