Toronto did rally to tie the game with eight seconds remaining, only to be put to the sword by LeBron James’ off-balance buzzer-beater from 10 feet out. “You know he’s going left and he made a tough shot”.
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So what if Game 1 – the series’ tone-setter, a grand opportunity squandered by the Raptors against a exhausted, still shaky Cavs crew – went to overtime. Heading into Game 4 he’s 11-2. But James, who practically owns the Raptors at this point, was up for the challenge. Except to come out swinging and hope something connects. “We just didn’t execute”, said Raptors coach Dwayne Casey. “And we just saw that tonight”. We’re not giving in, we’re not quitting.
There was a bounce-back but no happy ending.
In a must-win game with their season on the line, the Raptors were eviscerated. A tortuous regular season – which felt like “four or five” in one year, James said again late Monday – was interrupted at the February trade deadline by a hectic array of roster moves.
“I just play the game”, Hill said. “But you choose to be a warrior, you choose to continue to fight”. Backcourt partner Kyle Lowry had just five points to go with 10 assists.
“We had opportunity after opportunity after opportunity”, Toronto guard DeMar DeRozan said. Instead it has found different ways to lose.
It looked like the Raptors never really recovered from the Game 3 heartbreaker where James burried a buzzer-beater that lifted the Cavs to a 105-103 escape.
James went behind the back.
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Power forward Serge Ibaka has faded out of the starting lineup. Lowry has been hot and cold. Otherwise, what’s the point of even playing the games?
Ujiri and everybody in the Raptors organization feel Riley’s pain.
Clarkson still ended up making the basket but for DeRozan it was the end of his match as officials gave the Raptors star his marching orders for the flagrant foul.
The 20-year-old was given the assignment of guarding James, with Pascal Siakam his understudy. He makes the right read, he makes the right play, he makes the shot. Pascal Siakam, Jakob Poeltl, Fred Van Vleet and Delon Wright proved legitimate rotation players.
With Jefferson in Cleveland, he’s probably a guest in the Cavs’ postgame celebration of the series win over the Raptors. You could nearly slip a cob of corn in the open mouth of assistant coach Jim Sann.
Kevin Love also drilled 23 points and Kyle Korver scored 16 for the Cavs in the series-clinching Game 4.
Toronto becomes the first top seed to be swept prior to the conference finals since the National Basketball Association switched to a 16-team playoff format in 1984.
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Lue and James said they never saw the SNL skit, but clearly, confidence in Cavs camp is mighty high these days after things seemed pretty shaky less than two weeks ago when Cleveland trailed in 2-1.
