Notes, quotes and observations after the Cavaliers defeated the Toronto Raptors 109-102 at Air Canada Centre to sweep the Eastern Conference semifinal series. The Cavs await the winner of the Boston Celtics-Washington Wizards series in the conference finals, which won’t open until at least May 15.
1. Former Beacon Journal beat writer Jason Lloyd, now with The Athletic, deemed the rotation of LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love, Kyle Korver and Deron Williams the “shooterpalooza lineup.” The entire series could have been considered a “shooterpalooza.”
2. The Cavs hit 61 3-pointers in four games to the Raptors’ 27. That’s a staggering 102-point difference and truly disconcerting for the Raptors, who made 159 field goals to the Cavs’ 158.
3. Of those aforementioned five shooters, only James and Korver raised their averages from the first round of the playoffs, a sweep of the Pacers. James averaged 32.8 in round one, 36 in round two. Korver jumped from 5.3 to 10.3, scoring 32 points in the final two games against the Raptors.
4. The Raptors entered the day allowing 11 3-pointers per game, tied for fourth in the league in the postseason. The Cavs burned them for 16 Sunday. James went 5 for 12, Love 1 for 4, J.R. Smith 1 for 6, Irving 2 for 6, Channing Frye 2 for 3, Williams 1 for 3 and Korver 4 for 6. The Cavs had too many threats for the Raptors to contain.
5. “That team presents so many problems, shooting and the way they were making shots and some of them were well guarded,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. “Korver is one we take credit for because we fell asleep in the second quarter and he came off too clean in a couple of situations. But they were making shots that were well covered, hand in their face.”
6. Many of those well-covered shots were from James. According to ESPN Stats and Information, James has hit 18 of 40 (45 percent) on contested 3-pointers in this postseason, as compared to 18 of 68 (26.5 percent) in the 2016 playoffs.
7. Since Game 5 of the 2016 Finals, when the Cavs began their rally from a 3-1 deficit against Golden State, James is 11-0, has averaged 34.9 points, 9.7 rebounds and 7.8 assists while shooting 54 percent from the field, also according to ESPN Stats and Info.
8. Sounds like a man on a mission to deliver Cleveland another championship.
9. Against the Raptors, James posted staggering averages of 36 points, 8.3 rebounds, 5.3 assists, hit 57 percent from the field and 48 percent from 3-point range.
10. “I think they’re a well-oiled machine, playing on all cylinders right now. What did James shoot, 48 percent from 3 the whole series? When he’s hitting the shot like that, they’re very difficult to beat,” Casey said. “You’ve got to match tit-for-tat to beat them.”
11. Casey gave more insight on what James’ 3-point shooting does to Cavs’ foes.
12. “They’re very difficult to beat when he’s shooting the ball like that because the ball is so spread. It really takes you away (from the basket),” Casey said. “And then they bring in Frye and Korver, they’ve got the floor spread so much. And now here goes Kyrie.”
13. Cavs coach Tyronn Lue is also impressed with what James has done thus far in the playoffs at age 32.
14. “Since the second half of the season, he’s really went to another level,” Lue said. “We’re just riding him right now. The way he’s been playing is phenomenal. He’s carrying this team. and everybody’s chipping in and trying to help him as much as possible.
15. “For him playing at the pace he’s been playing at as far as offensively, when we’re getting stops and he’s getting out on the break and getting in transition, either Kyle Korver, Channing Frye or Kevin Love, J.R., you have all these shooters around so either you’re going to take those guys away and you’re going to get into the paint, or you’re going to help and he’s going to get assists. When we’re playing with pace, that’s when we’re the most dangerous.”
16. Playing with pace is key for the Cavs, which is why the rest is so important. The Cavs will have seven days off if the Wizards-Celtics series goes six games. If that series goes seven, they will have nine days off.
17. “It’s important. We’re an older ball club. And we got a couple nicks and bruises from the first two rounds,” James told ABC's Lisa Salters afterward. “We get an opportunity to also get on the practice court., and that helps us out a lot. I’m looking forward to what we have in store this week to get ready for our next matchup.”
18. The time off may be more important if the Cavs are facing the speedy Wizards and John Wall.
19. Lue was asked the thing he liked most about the Cavs and he couldn’t find one, although he did in a roundabout way.
20. “That we’re winning,” he said. “There’s a lot of things. Can’t pick one. We’re a resilient team. We know at the end of the season, things weren’t like everybody thought they should be, including us. But we knew once we got healthy we can go on runs like this, and get our rotations set, and lock in defensively and do some things defensively that we knew we’re capable of doing.
21. “I just like our team for just staying with it. For having the confidence and belief that we can get on track once we get healthy, once we get our rotation set. once we put in our defensive schemes that we can be a good team. I just love our team for being resilient.”
22. If the Celtics win the other semifinal, the conference finals will open in Boston. If the Wizards win, the Cavs will host the first two games.
23. Going forward, Irving liked that the Raptors tested them, even if only two of the four games were decided by 10 points or less.
24. “We needed to be tested throughout 48-minute games. One of the hardest things to do is sweep teams. When you have a veteran team like this and you go in with the mindset of we’re going to go out and compete for a full 48 minutes no matter what’s happening, no matter what run they throw at us, no matter what physical game it turns into or whatever, we’re ready for it,” Irving said.
25. “We’ve seen a lot. I feel like we’ve seen a lot more than a lot of other teams. Just from a lot of things we’ve been through as individuals and as a team. We understand how important it is, especially to come in and get a win and get rest.”
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