CLEVELAND -- We the Unloved.

The Raptors are making their first appearance in the NBA's Eastern Conference final in franchise history, but virtually no one -- especially south of the border -- is giving Toronto much hope of getting past Cleveland.

CBSSports.com was the most recent news outlet to dismiss Toronto, albeit not purposefully, sparking outrage on social media.

The website ran an online fan poll asking "Who will win the NBA title?"

The options were: Warriors, Thunder, Cavaliers, Other.

Raptors fans fought back at the slight with the hashtag .WeTheOther, a take on the Raptors' "We the North" marketing campaign. The players, meanwhile, responded with a collective "What else is new?" shrug at Tuesday morning's shootaround.

"We've been underrated for forever," DeMarre Carroll said ahead of Tuesday night's Game 1. "I feel the country of Canada has been underrated forever, so it's no different. I think this team, we've got a chip on our shoulder."

The "Other" option was eventually changed to "Raptors," and was dominating the poll early Tuesday afternoon at 95 per cent of 1,765 votes cast.

An explanation was later posted on the CBS Sports NBA Twitter feed.

"We posted it before Game 7! Raptors/Heat wouldn't fit! We love you, Canada!," the tweet said.

Too late for the Raptors, who've become accustomed to being underrated or overlooked.

"I see it all," DeMar DeRozan said of the criticism aimed their way. "It's never going to stop with us, no matter what we do, no matter how far we go. We just have to get all the way to the mountain top and maybe even then they'll come up with an excuse for us.

"I've been dealing with it for seven years. The best part I get out of it is being able to say we're standing here still playing."

The website's fan poll was updated again later in the day. This time the question was, "How many games will it take for the Cavs to beat the Raptors?"

The options were four, five, six or seven, along with a fifth option of "Raptors will win." There were no options available for how many games Toronto would need to beat the Cavaliers.

Another update came late Tuesday afternoon. The new question was "Which team will win the Eastern Conference Finals?" and the team names were the only options available.

Toronto Mayor John Tory chimed in on the subject by posting a letter to CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus on his Twitter feed.

"As Mayor of "Other" I felt the need to talk to @CBSSports about their poll. .WetheOther," he tweeted.

Tory oozed confidence with his final line of the five-paragraph letter that was attached to the post.

"Please don't hesitate to have your people call my office to get prime camera positions for the parade after the Toronto Raptors win the NBA Championship. We will mark their space as 'other."'

While Cleveland earned the No. 1 seed in the East ahead of No. 2 Toronto, the Raptors won the regular-season series 2-1 over the Cavs. But Cleveland has been hot in the post-season, roaring past Detroit and Atlanta in four games each.

The Raptors needed seven games to knock off both Indiana and Miami in their first two series.

And now, virtually everyone has picked Cleveland to win.

In the NBA.com's "Hang Time Blog," all but one of the nine analysts polled predicted the Raptors to be eliminated in five games or less.

Shaun Powell of NBA.com was particularly dismissive, predicting -- with some snark -- that the Raptors "will push the Cavs to four games." Only TNT's David Aldridge was charitable enough to give Toronto two wins in the series.

"I don't gamble so I don't know what the oddsmakers are saying, but I know what some of the media are saying," coach Dwane Casey said. "But again, I love that. I love that people discount us. They have discounted us over the past couple of years. I think that fuels us. It gets our guys going."

"If they beat us, they beat us, but it won't be because we didn't compete or us not playing to win. Are we perfect? No. But we have a lot of competitors and fighters in the locker-room that I believe in. That gives us a chance to win. That's why you play the game."

The headline on Sports Illustrated's series preview reads "Cavaliers--Raptors should be yet another breeze for Cleveland," and writer Rob Mahoney calls for a Cleveland sweep.

Meanwhile, ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith emphatically declared there is "no way" the Raptors defeat the Cavs, though he did give Toronto an outside shot of pushing the series to six games on the strength of the recent play of all-star guards Kyle Lowry and DeRozan. All 18 ESPN writers polled have the Cavs winning the series, with only three giving the Raptors more than a token victory.

The Raptors might get some small comfort from the fact that only three of those ESPN writers predicted Toronto would defeat Miami.

Indiana responded to Toronto's slogan with its own "We The Gold" campaign. In Miami, some fans wore T-shirts and held signs that proclaimed "We the South."

Game 2 is Thursday in Cleveland. The series moves to Toronto for Game 3 on Saturday and Game 4 on Monday.