“We’re a balanced team, not perimeter-oriented”, said James, who has bristled throughout the postseason at the notion the Cavs are a jump-shooting team. “Our goal is not nine wins”. If anything, they will be lucky to win a game in this series because the Cavs are well-rested but they can grind it out in the scenario this series goes to a Game 7.
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“Please don’t hesitate to have your people call my office to get prime camera positions for the parade after The Toronto Raptors win the NBA Championship”, he said. “We will face some adversity, but I think we’ll be ready”. In all, the Cleveland Cavaliers scored 20 of their first 27 shots and 17 of their first 21 attempts.
The Raptors had just one day to prepare for the Cavs after going to seven games with Miami.
The Cleveland Cavaliers made history with their three-point shooting in the first two rounds of the playoffs.
The Toronto Raptors have been here so many times, it’s nearly become their comfort zone.
Our commentator Terry Pluto had predicted the Cavs-Raptors series will go six games.
Cleveland figured to have some rust following a nine-day break.
The Cavs are rolling, and James and Kyrie Irving are a big reason why. James spent the final quarter on the bench cheering on Cleveland’s reserves.
If it wasn’t Irving piercing through the lane or James scoring at will inside, it was Kevin Love sinking a 3 or another dead sprint up the floor. “They trained their bodies all season long to get back to this point and those guys have been spectacular”.
James made his first nine shots, finished 11-of-13 – every made basket was at the rim – and he finished with 24 points in Cleveland’s 115-84 victory over the Raptors. James in particular had his way with DeMarre Carroll, making all seven of his shots against the defender. And when the Raptors held on to win their second round series against the Heat and took the franchise to new level, it was largely because of Lowry.
“This score is embarrassing”, he said.
“We had a couple of mistakes but for the most part our attention to detail was there for all 48 minutes – we’ve got to continue to do that in Game Two”.
And that might be the scariest thing of all. All-Stars DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry were again reduced to mere guards.
They finished with a league- worst 10-72 this season, after stumbling to a record losing streak of 28 games early in the season. They can dominate the glass – which they did 45-23 on Tuesday.
Raptors: Didn’t have center Jonas Valanciunas because of a sprained right ankle. Game 2 from Oakland is Wednesday, May 18. Tyronn Lue is in his first postseason as Cavaliers coach, getting the job in an in-season change. And, if you are Dwane Casey who just said that this series isn’t over by any means, you need to make your wards realize something: if you don’t shoot better, you’d lose. “He’s a good young coach, a good person”. The Cavs also improved to 6-3 against the spread and covered for the fourth time in five games after going 2-3 ATS versus the Detroit Pistons in the first round, according to the Odds Shark NBA Database. The Cavaliers have really come together over the last few months, and it all started, more or less, with the firing of David Blatt who, according to Ken Berger of CBS Sports, had basically given up control of the team to LeBron James.
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Game two will be played in Cleveland on Thursday at 8:30 p.m.
