Cleveland Cavaliers move 2-0 up against Toronto Raptors

Lowry scored 20 points but spent the fourth quarter in the locker room icing his ankle. Lue had praised the defensive work of J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert in tackling Paul George and DeMar DeRozan, the Pacers’ and the Raptors’ top scoring threats, mentioning that it unburdened James compared to past postseasons. They never had a chance.

NEED TO KNOW: The Cavaliers are 5-0 in this postseason and 29-4 against Eastern Conference opponents dating to 2015. But a lot of things usually don’t. “It was always my dream as a kid to be a part of this league and once I seen that gift, and once I seen I had mentors around me that was going to allow my gift to flourish, I didn’t take it for granted. Again, I haven’t given up”.

“I know it’s tough when you’re not playing and doing conditioning, but it was very important”. “I pretty much tried to stay the course of what we did past year, and we did that”. It’s two games. Two games on their floor.

“We played a lot smarter than we did in Game 1”, Green said. Thomas went for 33 in Game 1 and a jaw-dropping 53 in Game 2, while Wall is averaging 30 points and 14.5 assists in the first two games.

One thing is pretty clear: James will keep his hands off any beverages in Game 2 on Wednesday night. After spending two days talking about starting lineup changes and the relative utility of the team’s players, it all didn’t matter anyway.

The Raptors didn’t start Jonas Valanciunas, but he led them with 23 points. King James is going to score, get rebound and do what he pleases on the court. You can listen to Toronto Raptors vs Cleveland Cavaliers live stream as well as all of the other 2017 NBA Playoffs games by signing up with a one-time payment of $9.99.

A rattled DeMar DeRozan, another sizzling three-point shooting night for Cleveland, and a sprained ankle for Lowry. Game 3 will be on Friday, May 5th, at 7:00 p.m. E.T. The game will be televised on ESPN. Something to hold on to.

“If you can find somebody to stop LeBron in these moments”, DeRozan said, “I’ll give you $100”. “We were able to slow it down fast, but it still wasn’t a 48-minute game”.

Look, Cleveland is better. “But we’re a good team, too, had the same record (51-31)”, Casey said.

“We worked our habits defensively”, James said. That’s what the good teams do: Golden State, San Antonio, they play that way. They took only 17 threes, with many attempts coming after LeBron had already digested the team, Galactus-style.

“They’re defending champs and that’s what they look like right now”, Lowry said. Now what are we going to do about it?

Toronto is trying to change on the fly, and Cleveland has handled them easily.

Trying to get to his seventh straight NBA Finals, the 32-year-old James now only trails Michael Jordan, who scored 5,987 points in just 179 postseason games. “But the way we lost past year, it hit a lot harder”, he said. Or something closer to flawless, anyway. They’re a unsafe team, they have two guys in Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan who can really hurt you and we understand that. “We have to go in with that confidence and that feeling and say, ‘Hey, they put their trousers on one leg at a time, too, and one shoe at a time'”. I know there is another level we can get to.

While the Raptors traditionally bounce back in Game 2s, they dropped the second game of last season’s series with Cleveland 108-89. Raptors coach Dwane Casey shifted Valanciunas and DeMarre Carroll to the bench and started Patrick Patterson and Norman Powell, looking for a spark that didn’t come.

“Most guys are either big talkers or big workers”.