NBA playoff scores 2017: The Cavaliers are now 8-0 in the playoffs

The concerns that loomed over the Cavaliers during the regular season are all but gone now. They’ve swept their first two rounds of the playoffs and will most likely have a week of rest before playing the Eastern Conference Finals. This will be the second full week of rest for Cleveland in the postseason, which seems like an impossible accomplishment, yet so Cleveland. This is also the Cavaliers’ third straight appearance in the conference finals and the seventh straight appearance for James, showing the experience this team has quickly built up since James returned home. Why did anyone ever doubt them again?

It turns out this team is just fine and knows exactly what they are doing. It’s almost as if the first two rounds were practice games to get prepared for the final goal — winning another NBA title. LeBron James was asked after the Game 4 win who he would prefer to play in the ECF. He unsurprisingly said that it “doesn’t matter,” and you honestly can’t help but believe how true that is. James is as confident as ever right now and he knows exactly what he’ll need to do to return to the NBA Finals no matter who his opponent is.

LeBron James and Kyrie Irving were just too much for the Raptors to handle in Game 4. While James finished with 35 points, nine rebounds, and six assists, Irving also chipped in 27 points and nine assists. The Raptors hung around all game, putting together their best chance to steal a game in this series, but Kyrie ended all of that.

The Raptors held the lead for 26 seconds. With 6:12 to go, Irving hit a three from the right wing to put the Cavs up 95-93. He proceeded to go on a 11-0 run of his own, prompting a Raptors 20 second timeout with the four minutes to go and the Cavs up 103-95. Toronto cut the lead back to five with 25.3 to go on another Tucker three-pointer, but the game already had been decided.

The entire series was a rough loss for the Raptors’ organization as a whole. This team was built to challenge James and the Cavaliers, and in the end, they couldn’t even win a game. Sure, Kyle Lowry missed Games 3 and 4 with an ankle injury, but you couldn’t really convince anyone this team was ready to compete. Now with free agency decisions looming, it’s hard to know what the future of Toronto will be, but one thing is for sure in Toronto: DeMar DeRozan.

Toronto’s homegrown star put a stamp on his season of exponential growth in Game 4. Cleveland’s traps — a tricky riddle earlier in the series — became opportunities for DeRozan to flash his vastly improved passing chops. Where past iterations of DeRozan might have hijacked the offense and shot his team out of the game, he finished Sunday’s matinee with 22 points and eight assists on just 18 field-goal attempts in a visibly exhausting 46 minutes. As Raptors fans grapple with an unclear future, DeRozan is something of a security blanket to hold on to. Even if the worst should happen and the complexion of the team is drastically altered for the 2017-18 season, DeRozan, an established, ever-evolving star, will provide the Raptors with something of a competitive floor going forward.

The Raptors have a lot of choices to make going forward, but it may be best to just keep this core together.

The Wizards and Celtics were tied at 48 going into halftime. Then midway through the third quarter, the Wizards broke it open, scoring 26 unanswered points and putting away the Celtics for good in Game 4. John Wall finished with 27 points and 12 assists and made maybe his most strongest case to date that he is the best point guard in the East.

After starting 0-of-9 from the floor, the Wizards’ All-Star guard poured in 14 second-quarter points to remind the Celtics who the home team was. Wall followed the second with a 13-point, five-assist third quarter, opening up what would become a 121-102 win to tie the series at two apiece.

Isaiah Thomas is a special player, and his ability to create something out of nothing doesn’t go unnoticed. As is Kyrie Irving, who is one of the most gifted scorers the NBA has to offer.

But Wall is the entire package.

He creates shots for himself without forcing it. His head is always up, making the right decision at the right time. Wall is the best point guard in the East and his play this postseason has firmly lodged his name into the discussion with the West’s best, too.

It feels like this series will go the distance, giving us a full seven games. Isaiah Thomas was quiet in the two games in Washington, but you can expect to hear more from him when the Celtics return home. Especially after he voiced his displeasure for the referees in Game 4.

After Game 3, it was clear the Rockets would need the rest of the team to step up, as James Harden isn’t going to be able to beat the Spurs on his own. A one-man show isn’t how the Rockets won 55 games in the regular season. But Game 4? Game 4 was the perfect clinic as to why this team is so good and why it can cause so many problems.

Performances like the one Houston put up on Sunday make those nightmarish nights vanish into thin air. The Rockets didn’t turn the ball over in the last 23 minutes and they played the free-flowing, perimeter-scorching brand of basketball that’s enamored basketball fans around the world.

Game 4 was an example of everything going right for Houston. And with the series swinging back to San Antonio for Game 5, the Rockets will need everything to go right on the road if they want to have a chance to close the series out at home.

We’re guaranteed at least two more games of this series, and in all honestly we’ll probably get a Game 7. Each of the first four games has been a blowout, so hopefully Games 5 and 6 can give us some of the rich Spurs-Rockets drama we’ve been hoping for.

Cavaliers 109, Raptors 102 (Fear the Sword recap | Raptors HQ recap)

Wizards 121, Celtics 102 (Bullets Forever recap | Celtics Blog recap)

Rockets 125, Spurs 104 (The Dreamshake recap | Pounding the Rock recap)