Basketball Daily Dose: Dose: Cavs improve to 10-0
Cavs improve to 10-0 this postseason in blowout win
Thursday’s Game 2 in Cleveland was as bad as expected, as the Cavaliers cruised to a blowout 108-89 win over the Raptors and improved to 10-0 this postseason. Another sweep may be on, but they’ll have to win Games 3 and 4 in Toronto to make it happen. Tyronn Lue became the first coach in NBA history to start his career with a 10-0 record in the playoffs and the Cavs look poised to offer a serious challenge to the Warriors or Thunder in the Finals.
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LeBron James triple-doubled with 23-11-11 in the win and the Cavs became just the fourth team in history to start the playoffs 10-0, joining the 1989 and 2001 Lakers, and the 2012 Spurs. Cleveland hasn’t won a championship in any sport in 52 years and the Cavs are now just two wins away from returning to the Finals for the second straight year. LeBron moved past Shaquille O’Neal into fourth place on the career postseason scoring list and recorded his 15th playoff trip-dub. He also helped the Cavs close the first half on a 16-2 run to open up a 20-point lead at the break.
Kyrie Irving had 26 points, four boards, three assists and a steal, Kevin Love added 19 points, five boards, three assists and a 3-pointer, and J.R. Smith had 12 points and three 3-pointers in 27 minutes. Tristan Thompson came through for DFS owners with nine points, 12 rebounds and a block to round out the stats for the starters. Channing Frye scored 10 points in just 15 minutes and also had four boards and two 3-pointers off the bench, while the rest of the Cleveland reserves were very quiet, despite some garbage-time opportunities. Iman Shumpert was particularly disappointing with just three points on 1-of-2 shooting in 24 minutes, while Richard Jefferson managed just two points in 21 minutes off the pine.
For the Raptors, Kyle Lowry was awful, hitting just 4-of-14 shots and 1-of-8 3-pointers for 10 points, but said he hadn’t lost his confidence. “I missed countless 3-pointers that I thought were good,” he said. “That’s why I’m not down on myself.” I’m not sure I agree with him, as his shooting has been an issue ever since the regular season ended. He also had just three assists and five turnovers in the loss. DeMar DeRozan hit 8-of-18 shots for 22 points, five rebounds and a steal, while the rest of the starters (Luis Scola, DeMarre Carroll and Bismack Biyombo) combined for just 16 points and 13 rebounds.
James Johnson, Terrence Ross and Cory Joseph each scored 11 off the bench, and Patrick Patterson was again disappointing with six points, four assists, a block and two 3-pointers in 29 minutes off the bench. Patterson had been starting, but the Raptors tried to shake things up by moving him to the bench in favor of Scola, but were just an ineffective as they had been with Patterson starting.
There are no NBA games on Friday, but Game 3 at Toronto will take place on Saturday night at 8:30 on ESPN. To say it’s a must-win for the Raptors is an understatement, but it doesn’t seem possible for the Cavaliers to lose this series and anything but a sweep would be surprising at this point.
The Warriors visit the Thunder on Sunday at 8 p.m. on TNT with the Western Conference Finals series tied at 1-1.
