LeBron James drives past James Johnson.
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For as well as the Toronto Raptors have played at home in this Eastern Conference finals against the Cavaliers, there is one behemoth working against them entering tonight’s Game 6 – LeBron James.
Cleveland takes a 3-2 lead in the series and can punch their ticket to the NBA Finals for the second-straight year with a win Friday night in Toronto.
Heading into Friday’s game six of the Eastern Conference Finals, it appears that the Cleveland Cavaliers have seized complete control of the series.
The victory gives the Cavs a 3-2 series lead, and they can return to the National Basketball Association finals with just one more win.
James had eight assists and six rebounds in 31 minutes before checking out late in the third quarter with the Cavs up 37.
The Cavaliers now await the victor of the Western Conference Finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Golden State Warriors.
Another thing that bears watching is whether or not Raptors guards Kyle Lowry and DeMar Derozan can play up to level they did in games three and four-when they averaged 59.5 points per game as a tandem. “Our communication, everything had to be a lot sharper, and we … had a lot to learn from (those games), including myself”. The win Wednesday night gives them their biggest margin of victory in a playoff game in franchise history.
Love shot the ball poorly during the two games in Toronto, going a combined 5-of-23 in the losses, including 3-of-11 from the 3-point line. “That’s been all three games”. “We’ve still got to go out and prove ourselves”.
But Cleveland then reeled off the first five points of the fourth quarter to narrow the gap and soon trailed by one point after Channing Frye made his second straight three-pointer.
“No, it’s not a time to go home just yet”, says DeRozan.
The Cavs didn’t handle the Raptors’ crowd or energy well in Games 3 and 4, as they got out of rhythm on offense at times and failed to crack 100 points in consecutive games for the first time in more than 20 months – a span of 27 games. James led Miami with 28.2 points, 7.8 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.0 steals.
And again, nobody aside from Lowry and DeRozan have scored in double-digits.
“They kicked our butts”, Raptors coach Dwane Casey said.
As far as “other guys” making plays, Toronto may have to rely on its third star, center Jonas Valanciunas.
“He’s just a great player”, Lue said.
The Raptors were within 13 points on a Lowry three with 8:21 to play, but barely two minutes later, Irving hit a dagger three that had the Cavaliers up by 21, and finally sucked any last hope the Raptors and their fans had of forcing a Game 7.
The Cavs rebounded from two pitiful showings defensively to hold the Raptors to 39 percent shooting, including 3-for-17 from 3-point range.
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TORONTO (AP) – To keep their season alive, the Toronto Raptors are counting on a home-court advantage that saved them before.
