CLEVELAND, Ohio - Despite being on the losing end of a 115-84 trouncing in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, the Toronto Raptors insisted Tuesday night that a deep Cleveland Cavaliers squad does not intimidate them.

"We beat them [in the regular season], so we don't feel like we have anything to fear like they're a super team or anything," Terrence Ross told cleveland.com. "But we're just going out there to play our game and compete."

The fourth-year guard said moments before the game that he found solace in the knowledge that they took down the reigning Eastern champs twice in the three meetings during the course of the season.

"It just gives you the confidence that you can play with anybody," he said. "We're here for a reason and we're going to play to the best of our abilities."

If Tuesday's effort was playing at the best of their abilities, Toronto is in trouble. DeMarre Carroll, who didn't have his best defensive night, said the Cavaliers looked like a team that has been off for nine days playing a team that had just come off a long series.

In a concerted effort to take away Cleveland's potent three-point weapons, Toronto gave up a massive 56 points in the paint and were outrebounded significantly, 45-23.

All of LeBron James' 11 field goals came from under the basket with the Raptors choosing not to rotate help for most of the night. Big man Jonas Valanciunas -- still out with a badly sprained right ankle -- could only watch the destruction that took place inside the painted area that he's usually assigned to protect.

Frustrated by his status, it doesn't sound like he'll be able to help in Game 2 either.

"It's day-by-day," he said to cleveland.com. "I have to get approval from the doctors. I've got to wait. I'm still not there. I'm probably 50 percent right now."

DeMar DeRozan, who is typically not the boisterous type, addressed his guys in the locker room.

"It's one game," he told cleveland.com. "They did what they were supposed to do, protect home court and now we have another opportunity Thursday to try to take that away and try to head home with it tied up."

When he voices his opinion, his teammates listen.

"I definitely speak up," DeRozan said. "It's nothing out of the norm. I more so try to lead by example whenever I do something, but whenever something needs to be said, I don't have any problems saying it."

But it's going to take actions rather than words for the Raptors. Cleveland is 9-0 in this postseason and has gone virtually untested. Meanwhile, Oklahoma City and Golden State appeared fated to slug through an extended Western final series.

For various reasons, the Raptors believe they have what it takes to be the first team to push the Cavaliers. They insist James and company do not startle them. They simply chalked up Game 1 as being just that, Game 1.

"We've been here before. We've lost the first game of every round so far," reserve James Johnson told cleveland.com. "You lose by 20, you lose by 40, you lose by two, it's still a loss. We lose, we still regroup and find out what we have to do regardless the margin of the L."

"That's just Game 1," Valanciunas said. "There's nothing set yet. We still got six games to go. Anything can happen."