LeBron James reached the interview table sporting sunglasses and a sharp suit. With James and Irving taking a question about how teammate Kevin Love had compared them to former USC running backs Lendell White and Reggie Bush, James had to stop and laugh as Williams stood in the middle of the room and filmed the entire scene. Lowry was held to just eight points. But he was part of a Cavaliers bench that outscored its Toronto counterparts 39-36 and, with a 20-17 fourth-quarter advantage while the starters rested, helped them earn the most-lopsided postseason win in team history.
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The reserves were particularly impactful to open the second half, when the Cavaliers took control with a 25-2 run that started late in the first. The combination of Iman Shumpert, Matthew Dellavedova, Channing Frye, and Richard Jefferson overpowered the Raptors’ second unit. And then when the defense collapses, we’re going to spread it out to our shooters.
“I don’t predetermine what is going on or how they’re going to defend me”. In practice we do a lot of work together but we’ve got some very smart, cerebral players. “We couldn’t have done a better job of that, especially in the playoffs”. “If not, then we’ve got to be able to step up and knock down the 3s”.
For the Toronto Raptors, DeRozan had a team-high 18 points and tied Kyle Lowry for a team-high five assists.
Tuesday night, they had it figured out.
After sweeping through the first two rounds of the playoffs by setting records with their 3-point shooting, the Cavs instead attacked the heart of the Raptors’ defense. Despite this, James has claimed the Cavaliers aren’t a three-point shooting team.
“They were the fresher, quicker team tonight”, Casey said.
Added James: “Myself and Kyrie, we love to live in the paint”.
“It was great for us”, Lue said. Lowry and DeRozan didn’t look like the same players they were that closed out Miami. I think that’s the only conclusion that a reasonable person could come to, and I’m sure a certain “6ix”-repping rapper is in heavy rotation right now”.
“We have to find that rhythm with that second unit and get some productivity from those guys”, Casey said of his bench. He missed some good looks.
Seems like a normal instance of a guy just using music to get pumped up?
Twice Raptors infractions went to video replay to determine whether they were flagrant or not.
“There was no ill intent there”, he said.
The Raptors weren’t without fight, but they did have trouble containing the Cavs when they got inside Toronto’s paint.
The Cavaliers’ dominance of the Eastern Conference in the playoffs continued on Tuesday. The Cavaliers have too much firepower for the Raptors.
“Neither. Neither. Neither nor”, DeRozan said. “And the next game, I will be better”.
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The Cavaliers’ two sweeps allowed them a nine-day break, while the battle-wearing Raptors arrived in Cleveland to play just two days after finally knocking off Miami in Game 7 of the conference semifinals. That is arguably the biggest difference from last year’s team to this year’s team. “This series is not over by any means. The score is embarrassing but again, it’s just one game”.
