Irving said he was looking forward to the conference finals matchup with Lowry, who averaged 31 points in three games against Cleveland during the regular season and torched the Cavs for 43 in a win on February 26.
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In one of the momentum-shifting stretches of Game 1 of the NBA Eastern Conference final, the Toronto Raptors were done in by the clock and too much uninterrupted play.
Aside from James, Cavs point guard Kyrie Irving continued his domination of the backcourt matchup, pouring in 26 points and decimating the Raptor defence. But Toronto lacks the necessary firepower to stay with a Cleveland team playing its best basketball this season, one that James likened to a football team. He also had a game-high five turnovers and was 1 of 2 at the line, his first free throws of the series.
As expected, Toronto Raptors center Jonas Valanciunas will miss his sixth consecutive game after suffering a sprained ankle against the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. DeMar DeRozan hurt the Cavaliers by hitting a variety of contested shots, similar to his Game 1 performance, and the Raptors were creating second chance points by grabbing big offensive rebounds.
Casey and his coaching staff wanted to meet across the hallway from Toronto’s locker room following the game, but couldn’t get access because the door was locked. We’ve just got to figure it out and match it, and just go out there and do things that we do. The Raptors are in trouble entering Game 2 today. “Some of the straight-line drives, it’s just like in the summertime, you’re guarding a guy one-on-one, you’ve got to get down in the stance and understand your cushion that you can have on the guy”.
“We’ve got to continue to go in and continue to attack the paint, attack through the reach-in”, Casey said after Wednesday’s practice.
Though the Cavaliers were fine after such a long layoff, the Raptors weren’t afforded that luxury.
“We play offense, we play defense, and we’re great at special teams as well”, he said.
I don’t see how the Raptors can compete with that. The 31-point victory in Game 1 was the most lopsided in the postseason in Cavs history. To clinch the East finals at home, they would have to win it in six games.
Cleveland thumped Toronto 115-84 on Tuesday, showing why it is heavily favored to return to the NBA Finals.
“We know LeBron is the best player in the world”.
In addition to being 16/1 underdogs to win the series, the Raptors are 12-point underdogs in Game 2.
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James had 23 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists – his 15th career playoff triple-double and first this postseason – and passed Shaquille O’Neal, moving into fourth place on the NBA’s all-time playoff scoring list.
