Kevin Love #0 celebrates with LeBron James #23 of the Cleveland Cavaliers during the first half against the Dallas Mavericks at Quicken Loans Arena on April 1, 2018 in Cleveland, Ohio. It is unfortunate that the Celtics have to do it on a back to back, and they desperately need Terry Rozier to bring his energy back to the lineup.
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LeBron won’t just be able to stay in the downtrodden Eastern Conference, but will join two of the best players in the National Basketball Association right now; Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons. The Cavs are a half-game ahead of the Philadelphia 76ers for third in the East.
And then: “I’m gonna flip everything to Nova, y’all, you know”, he said, smiling the whole time.
It gets even more complicated when you think about the first round matchups, especially for a Celtics team that is going to be missing Marcus Smart and Kyrie Irving for the first round.
We are really looking forward to this game. I will dispense with the small talk and just get to it: I have built a time machine. The Raptors are 2-6 ATS in their last 8 games playing on 0 days rest, 0-5 ATS in their last 5 home games and 0-8 ATS in their last 8 games overall.
“We got four guys you know from our championship team, myself, J.R. (Smith), Tristan (Thompson) and Kev (Love)”. We get Blake, we became a totally different team. “It’s a new season and we’ll see what happens”. With George Hill missing the game due to an ankle injury, 36 year-old Jose Calderon started and scored 11 first-quarter points on ideal 5-5 shooting. The way the Cavaliers – without starting point guard George Hill (ankle) – handled the Raptors, they just might cruise to their fourth straight NBA Finals appearance.
The Raptors are healthy, but they have their own concerns.
TORONTO (AP) – The Toronto Raptors turned up the defensive pressure and tightened their grip on first place in the Eastern Conference.
Toronto increased its lead over second-place Boston to three games. Cleveland has won 10 of 12, scoring a league-leading 113.5 points per 100 possessions in that time.
Five players are averaging in double figures for the Raptors, the are DeRozan (23.4), Kyle Lowry (16.5), Jonas Valanciunas (12.7), Serge Ibaka (12.5) and CJ Miles (10.1).
The Cavs made their first five three-pointers – in less than four minutes – and opened a 16-point lead. I see other refs took offense to it.
What all of this means for the playoffs, it’s hard to say. After all, consider that they are 2-0 this season against the Houston Rockets, who will finish with the best record in the National Basketball Association.
LeBron James has helped the Cavaliers to nine wins in their last 10 games.
“We’re not excited”, Casey said. In that post-season, every time it looked like the Raptors had found their footing against a weaker opponent, they let them back into the series. That allowed us to do that. Boston has a far easier path coming up with home games against the Chicago Bulls and Atlanta Hawks set for Friday and Sunday, respectively. While that wasn’t good, they played even worse in the second and third quarters.
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Delon Wright had eight points, eight assists and nine rebounds for the Raptors, who entered having lost five of their previous eight, including the past two.
