LeBron James is not messing around en route a potential seventh consecutive NBA Finals. He came out of the gate aggressive and ready to crush the Toronto Raptors from the get-go. It was easy to forget that this was merely Game 1, because James was that disrespectful.
LeBron James disrespected the Raptors for the entirety of Game 1
James took over from the very start.
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He finished with 35 points, four assists, and 10 rebounds, and was clearly the best player on the floor, able to put his head down and get to wherever, whenever.
The Raptors, like most other teams, had absolutely no answer for him. James’ teammates filled in perfectly as the three-point flamethrowers he needs to win games too, and that spelled disaster for Toronto.
James showed where this series is likely headed in the first quarter
Not even two minutes into the game, James pushed full-speed to the hoop, splitting between an uninterested Kyle Lowry and a much-too-late DeMarre Carroll.
The rest of Toronto’s defense forgot to show up, and those lapses were evident all 48 minutes through this one as the Cavs went on big runs every few minutes.
James got downright disrespectful, and it was beautiful
James didn’t just finish dunks on Monday night, he went for the highlight reel flushes over and over again.
He damn threw down a dunk off a Kyrie Irving alley-oop off the backboard in the first quarter. WITH HIS LEFT HAND!
If you look closely enough, you can tell he signals something to Irving. He wanted to be this extra from the start.
He also casually destroyed a DeMar DeRozan shot. I don’t think he even meant to block this so bad. It’s just what he does when he’s in one of those zones.
That sort of mentality continued through the final minutes.
The beer incident
As if James hadn’t made his point clear through emphatic dunks and extremely good shooting, he took it to another level when he took a beer from the sidelines and pretended to drink it while he was on the court.
James is not usually the joking type during the playoffs, he turns off his social media accounts during this time of the season every year.
But he was clearly having a great time disrespecting the heck out of Toronto.
He made it feel like this series was over, though it has really just begun.
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