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There was talk about the new Raptors possibly knocking off the King. He put those talks to rest with ease. The Cleveland Cavaliers advanced to their 4th straight Eastern Conference Finals with a crushing 128-93 win over the Toronto Raptors as they swept them for the 2nd year in a row.
LeBron James finished with 29 points, 11 assists, and 8 rebounds while Kevin Love chipped in with 23 points. Jonas Valanciunas led the Raptors with 18 points as they came up short yet again. Here are the talking points:
#5 The Raptors bench delivers, the starters do not
A lot of talk on why this Raptors team is different from the ones in past years was their bench. One of the best bench units in the league, they showed up for this elimination game, contributing towards 48 of the 93 Raptors points which is remarkable on their part. On the flip side, this means the starters only had 45, which is pretty pathetic
Valanciunas led the whole team off the bench with 18 points, in just 15 minutes which begs the question as to why he didn't play more? He's been pretty effective and mostly efficient in this series both as a scorer and rebounder, so why his minutes kept going down is puzzling indeed.
He was by far their best player on the court on both ends in this one and keeping him on the bench while almost everyone else mightily struggled is something I presume Dwane Casey would have to answer about.
#4 The Cavs role players are on a roll
Boy, have the Cavs role players stepped up. For the first time in quite a while, every starter scored in double digits. James, of course, led the way with 29 but got a whole lot of help, as the rest of the starters scored 66 points. George Hill led the early charge, scoring 6 of the 1st 10 points for Cleveland and they never looked back after the midway point of the 2nd quarter.
The talk throughout the Indiana series was how James has little to no help and that this was definitely going to be the year that he fails to get to the Finals. It's safe to say the narrative has flipped now.
To be honest the only way for the Cavs role players to go was up as it's hard for me to believe they could have been worse than they were against Indiana. That said, I didn't see them playing as well as they have done. If this keeps up they will have little to no trouble in the Conference Finals.
#3 Lowry and DeRozan come up small, yet again
What a god awful way to go out of the playoffs. I don't think I can recall any duo which flames out in the playoffs like these two do. I'd praised Kyle Lowry for his showing in Game 3, where he led the late charge by scoring 15 in the 4th quarter and almost leading the Raptors all the way back.
He extinguished all that goodwill pretty quickly. Lowry finished with 5 points but at least had 10 assists so he did something right. His plus-minus was a ghastly -23 however, 2nd worst on the team. This brings us to the worst, his backcourt mate DeMar DeRozan.
DeRozan was pretty upset about being benched in the 4th quarter in Game 3, during which the Raptors made their comeback. You'd think he'd have a point to prove to Casey in this one. The only point he proved, was that Casey was right.
DeRozan finished with 13 points, was a -29 and his day ended with a flagrant foul in the 3rd quarter which got him ejected. I didn't think it was worth an ejection but the refs probably did him a favor by kicking him out of the game.
#2 Same old Raptors
Ah, all the talk about the new Raptors. They changed their offense, they've got a great bench, they're top 5 in both offense and defense and guess what, they still got swept. In a way, I probably shouldn't say same old Raptors because this is worse.
They were the number one seed, won 59 games and they go out like that. While it's never acceptable to get swept, it is understandable that you got swept last year by the Cavs when they had Kyrie Irving but what now? This Cavaliers team is nowhere near as good as last season, as shown in the Indiana series, but the Raptors still got swept.
I usually don't blame Dwane Casey too much, what can he do when DeRozan and Lowry just don't show up, but he could have played Valanciunas more in this series. It might have made a difference. In the end, the Raptors front office and coaching staff can make all the changes and adjustments they want, but if the two best players don't show up in the big moments, this is their ceiling.
#1 Another Conference Finals appearance for LeBron
The King continues his reign over the East as he reaches the Conference Finals yet again. It's the 8th straight year he's made it this far and unless a miracle occurs, he's going to make it 8 straight Finals appearances. This has probably been the hardest he's had to work to get to the Conference Finals than at any other point in his career.
It was a turbulent Regular season with all the trades and drama surrounding the team, which led to him playing 82 games for the first time and have arguably the best year of his career. His performances against Indiana will probably go down as some of his best ever thanks in part to the supporting cast being as bad as they were.
They've stepped up now, which has made his life easier and has once again shown what James can do when the rest of the team plays up to or close to their full potential.
They'll in all likelihood face Boston Celtics in the Conference Finals unless the Sixers pull off a comeback for the ages. It would have been an epic series between the two if Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward were healthy but they're not. Another Finals appearance looks all but set.
Guess the Lakers players!
