But make no mistake: this season won’t be satisfying without a finale that matches the King against the Baby-Faced Assassin, a showdown that has been in the works for almost a year.
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But with a firm, even-handed approach, Lue has bonded the Cavs and pushed them to their best basketball in two seasons since LeBron James came home. This all comes after he recorded eight straight double-doubles in Cleveland’s first eight playoff wins. The Los Angeles Lakers took two of those series, forever giving Magic the upper hand over his fiercest rival.
Information accrued by ESPN’s Sports Science show in 2015 determined just how powerful James is on the court.
“What he did for the game, the championship runs that he had with the “Showtime” Lakers and him being the all-time leading scorer in National Basketball Association history and so on and so on and so on”, James said.
After a regular season filled with drama, Cleveland is hitting its stride and looking unstoppable in the Eastern Conference without Golden State and Oklahoma City (or San Antonio for that matter) to contend with.
LeBron was on top of his game on Thursday night.
That’s helped James – he’s averaging 23.5 points and shooting 69.2 percent from the floor through two games. The Warriors won 118-91.
Among other things, Carman said he’s “so damn sick and exhausted of some of the stuff being said about LeBron and the Cavs” around the nation.
As the Cleveland Cavaliers travel to Canada for Sunday morning’s Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Toronto Raptors – live on SuperSport -, everything seems to be going according to the plan for LeBron James and his crew. By tinkering with lineups and improving Cleveland’s spacing, Lue has gotten more out of Love and made the Cavaliers more potent on the perimeter. There’s Irving, whose penetration creates space in the lane. There’s Tristan Thompson, who dominates the boards and sets up all sorts of second-chance opportunities.
Burke noted that James was 18-of-26 in his shot attempts, with an average distance of 1.6 feet, and asked about his ease in getting to the basket so often.
“It’s whatever. I think it’s overreaction, personally”, Lowry said with a shrug. “I don’t foresee him tomorrow night and after that we’ll just have to wait and see”.
“Whether they call the East weak or not, we’ve got to beat these teams”, Lue said. “We’ve been able to adjust”. Sure, but a lot more Love would help the Cavaliers. “I know the nervousness is there and guys (use the washroom) before the game”. “He has been very consistent from Day One”.
“They’ve done a good job of collapsing and getting the ball out of my hands”, Lowry said about Cleveland’s efforts to contain him.
The Cavaliers are joyfully going along for the ride.
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“It just always takes me back to my childhood”, James said of those milestones. “I think it feels like we won one game. Everyone is feeding off one another”.
