James, Cavs humble Raptors
CLEVELAND — There was no Game 2 comeback for the Toronto Raptors.
A rattled DeMar DeRozan, another sizzling three-point shooting night from Cleveland, and the Raptors dropped a 125-103 decision to the reigning National Basketball Association champion Cavaliers. They’ll head back to Toronto down 2-0 in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal series.
Jonas Valanciunas had 23 points to top Toronto, while Cory Joseph had 22 and Kyle Lowry shook off a third-quarter injury to finish with 20. Serge Ibaka added 16 points. DeRozan finished with just five points, and didn’t make a field goal until early in the fourth quarter.
LeBron James had 39 points, passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for second all-time in post-season scoring, and now trails only Michael Jordan. Kyrie Irving added 22 for the Cavs, who made 18 of their 33 three-point attempts to Toronto’s five.
Yet, it was more of the same. Despite inserting Norman Powell and Patrick Patterson into the starting lineup to push the pace, the Raptors managed to dig themselves an early hole anyways. They managed to cut the Cavs’ lead to single digits in the second quarter, but by the time Irving scored on a driving bank shot late in the third quarter, Cleveland waltzed into the fourth with a 9973 advantage.
The Cavs twisted the knife in the fourth, taking a 30-point lead with 9:32 to play on a three-pointer from Channing Frye. Casey went to his bench soon after.