LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers absolutely leveled the Toronto Raptors in Game 2, winning by 18 to take a 2-0 series lead. The Cavs have now won eight straight playoff games against the Raptors, and can sweep them at home over the next two games. James had 43-8-14. Kevin Love had 31 and 11.
Confessions of a Raptors believer
We have that and more in Friday’s NBA newsletter.
Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images
Nick Wright of FS1 asked this question toward the end of the game: “Some of the best members of the NBA media truly believed the Raptors would win this series. They really, honestly did. Never made any sense.” I don’t think Wright is talking about me here, though I did think the Raptors would win the series and the East. (I thought the same last year!) Here’s my argument that it did make sense.
The Raptors were really darn good this season! Toronto had the second-best scoring margin in the entire NBA. The Raptors had a top-five offense and a top-five defense. They had modernized their attack. The Raps fit every criteria for a team that should win their conference.
The Cavaliers, meanwhile, did not. Here’s why I totally didn’t believe in the Cavaliers: they had James for 82 games, leading the NBA in minutes, near the height of his offensive powers ... and were still barely above average in scoring margin. Cleveland had maybe the Greatest of All Time on the edge of his prime ... and still had the second-worst defense in the entire league. Half their roster had joined in February, including key cogs that were either completely inexperienced in the playoffs a la the 2015 team (Jordan Clarkson, Larry Nance) or had no time to adjust playing with James (George Hill). Kevin Love, heavens bless him, had a jacked up hand.
In a rational, logical sense, everything spelled doom for the Cavaliers and triumph for the Raptors. The only two arguments for Cleveland beating Toronto were based on armchair psychological profiles of the Raptors’ stars and a reasonable assessment (in a small sample size) that James had Toronto’s number. But the rational evidence stacked way up in favor of Toronto.
It turns out that James is still the only thing that matters, Fifteen years in. Lesson learned.
Thursday’s Scores
Cavaliers 128, Raptors 110
Cleveland leads 2-0
Recaps: Fear The Sword | Raptors HQ
Celtics 108, Sixers 103
Boston leads 2-0
Recaps: CelticsBlog | Liberty Ballers
Friday’s Schedule
Warriors at Pelicans, 8 p.m. ET, ESPN
Golden State leads 2-0
Rockets at Jazz, 10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN
Series tied 1-1
Links on Links on Links
Here’s Paul Flannery on the Celtics refusing to go away.
The Knicks hired David Fizdale as head coach Thursday. Fizdale last coached the Grizzlies and is known to have a strong relationship with free agent-to-be LeBron James from their time together in Miami. That does not mean James is going to New York, but this at least got me to look at the Knicks’ salary cap sheet.
Tim Cato’s instant oral history of Donovan Mitchell’s spectacular putback dunk from Game 2 was great fun.
Seerat Sohi on the Raptors remaining a footnote in James’ story.
The WNBA champion Minnesota Lynx haven’t been invited to the White House. They aren’t losing sleep over it.
Sad Drake. Sad Kevin Hart. Bad night for ubiquitous NBA celebrity fans.
The Wizards gave general manager Ernie Grunfeld another secret extension. A stark reminder that most jobs in D.C. have no term limits.
Ricky O’Donnell talked to a bunch of top high school stars about what they think about the potential repeal of the NBA age minimum.
Be excellent to each other.
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