LeBron James shot down the Toronto Raptors with another gala. The Canadians don’t stand a chance with the renewed team against the force of the Cavs, where Kevin Love can finally tap his potential again.
“If we had LeBron, we would have won the show.”
These words come from DeMar DeRozan and are about one year old. The Raptors were shown by the Cavs last year and apparently learned their lesson: They changed their system on the offensive, moved away from the isoball and focused more on ball movement and shooting from a distance. They bolstered the bench to exonerate Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, and in O.G. Anunoby they dragged a player who could stand up to LeBron James. They signed another shooter to the Second Unit in C.J. Miles.
And it seemed to pay off. During the Regular Season the Raptors played some fantastic basketball and took their place in the Eastern Conference with 59 victories (franchise record).
And the Cavs? They had a daily soap with many ridiculous stories and cheated their way into the playoffs, where they were almost eliminated against a Pacers team and only reached the next round thanks to some heroics of LeBron James.
In Toronto, they sensed the great opportunity to finally defeat the rulers of the East. Game 1 also got off to a good start, the Cavs did not lead a single time in the regular season and yet the guests won after extra time because Toronto could not use the last 11 rolls.
It would have been the much needed sense of achievement against this supposedly weak James team, so the Raptors already stood with their backs to the wall again.
And it came as it had to come.
LeBron took over especially in the second half and led his Cavs with 43 points, 8 rebounds and 14 assists to his second away win. Cleveland thus get the chance to sweep Toronto for the second time in a row with two home victories.
And what James did in the second 24 minutes was just spectacular. If he first used his teammates, it was his turn at the latest in the middle of the third quarter. Raptor coach Dwane Casey experimented with an ultra-small lineup, James sensed weakness and destroyed all hopes for Toronto.
The body language of the Raptors showed how demoralized they were. The film of 2016 and 2017 was repeated, in the hall it became as quiet as a mouse. “It’s draining you mentally and physically,” Casey admitted.
James nevertheless urged caution after the game. “There’s still a long way to go,” James said. “We want to improve further and we have done so in each of the nine games.” How James wants to improve after this performance, however, remains to be seen. Only on the free-throw line it hooked again after its 1/6 performance.
However, given the other components in his game, this was grumpy at the very highest level. Whether by drive or from downtown: LeBron had found his rhythm and did the Raptors once again on his own. 27 points (13/19 FG) and 7 assists the king put on in just under 20 minutes, although he was not badly defended in some cases.
But what hit LeBron was unbelievable. In the best Dirk Nowitzki manner James hit 7 Fadeaway jumpers, in almost 20 years of data collection only Klay Thompson had managed this in 2015. But the Splash Brother needed a whole game for that.
For lovers of the Heat Check this was a revelation. With each jump shot James apparently tried to increase the difficulty of the throws with each further attempt. It looked like a better training session, with the opponents not 40-year-old coaches but highly paid NBA professionals. Toronto became LeBronto.
But one thing was even more important for Cleveland: the Cavs scored 8 of their 14 triples in the second half. The lack of distance in Cleveland’s repertoire almost cost the Indy series before.
This may also apply to Kevin Love, who was only 32 percent out of the field before the game, but exploded that early evening with 31 points and 11 rebounds. “Kevin was phenomenal,” rejoiced LeBron accordingly. “He was the all-star we met and loved. It was important to him that the ball went in the basket and then it got hot.”
But the resistance was also limited. Jonas Valanciunas had huge problems with the Stretch Big, so Casey tried it with C.J. Miles in the second half. But everyone in the hall seemed to realize that this was not too glorious an idea, except for Casey. Love thanked me with one score after another.
It was amazing how quickly Casey pulled the rip cord on his Starting Five in the second half anyway. The terribly weak Serge Ibaka had to give way after 90 seconds. “Serge wasn’t on the case today,” Casey said after the game. “We were looking for alternatives and wanted to play faster.”
But this was a huge flop. As bad as Ibaka was offensive, he would have been a good option in defence. So Anunoby, Miles and Siakam had to try to stop the hot James and Love – an unmanageable Hercules task.
The possible progress can now also be seen as such. The Raptors need at least one, if not two victories at the next two appearances in Ohio to tickle the Cavs again. But it is also possible that this was the last home game of the Canadians this season. After all the positive headlines, the Raptors are back in the same place they felt a year ago.
At least the realization remains: If they had LeBron James, the Raptors would have won both games.