Toronto fans chanted ‘We Want Cleveland!’ in the final seconds.
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Bismack Biyombo added 17 points and 16 rebounds for the Raptors.
Toronto has been nipping at Cleveland’s heels all season and the East finals will match up the conference’s top two teams.
Yet Lowry said he is looking forward to pitting his wits against the in-form James and the likes of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. “But we’re not done yet”. “I just wanted to ask them how it felt for them to be in the playoffs, in a Game 7 moment”. Lowry made 11 of 20 shots, including five of seven from 3-point range, and DeRozan connected on 12 of 29 attempts. DeMarre Carroll is yet to really have a breakout game in these playoffs as he continues to deal with a tweaked ankle and bruised left wrist while Jonas Valanciunas remains without a timetable for his return, so that’s just going to put more pressure on the Raptors’ backcourt duo of Lowry and DeRozan to shoulder the majority of the scoring burden. “They both stepped up and carried us”. Toronto beat IN in the first round.
The Raptors came away victorious in two of the three meetings with the Cavs in the regular season but you can’t be feeling too confident about their chances in Game 1 as they’re fresh off their second seven-game series while the Cavs are fresh off their second series sweep of the playoffs.
“I think this group is hungry”, Casey said about his team.
“He’s still limping around but he’s doing therapy 24-7 so we’ll see”, Casey said.
Scouting booklets for the Cleveland series were sitting on the chair of each Raptors player inside their locker room less than an hour after the game.
“We know we’ve got a tough task ahead”, Lowry said. “It’s always a challenge going against those guys”.
With a first-ever place in the Eastern Conference finals beckoning, the Raptors turned the screw and quickly extended their lead with both Lowry and DeRozan outstanding.
An exhausted, yet stoic, Dwyane Wade could finally admit as much as he slowly walked out of Air Canada Centre on Sunday evening to board the team bus for the dreaded flight back to Miami. “For myself and a lot of guys on this team, there’s not always mother season, another season, so you want to take advantage of the opportunities”. Toronto built a 53-47 lead at half-time but the real damage was done in a dominant run in the third quarter. “And that’s the reason that they’re in the Eastern Conference finals because they’re two All-Stars”.
The loss of center Hassan Whiteside to a sprained MCL in Game 3 opened the lane – and essentially the floodgates – for the Raptors to drive and attack over the final four games without having to contend with the presence of the NBA’s leading shot-blocker.
“We aren’t satisfied”, Lowry said.
Veterans Luol Deng, Joe Johnson and Amar’e Stoudemire are also free agents who either declined to discuss their future or said they would weigh their options once July arrives. “Unfortunately we fell one game short”.
“We’ve all watched it and we’ve witnessed all the things they’ve done, like hitting 25 3s in a game and 70-something 3s in the series, but that’s why we have books and film and we’ll have time to scout it and make adjustments”.
Miami coach Erik Spoelstra was magnanimous in defeat and tipped his hat to Toronto. “We’re going to start diving in on their personnel, diving in on what they do best”.
The Raptors didn’t let up, and a 3 by Lowry at 3:23 made it 111-86.
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After back-to-back first-round exits, the Raptors won a franchise-record 56 games and advanced to Round 2 for the first time in almost 15 years despite being pushed to Game 7 by the Indiana Pacers. Toronto showed up well prepared and was not ready to have their season come to an end.
