LeBron’s antics ‘disrespectful’: Raptors guard

TORONTO Dunking off the backboard. Drinking a beer. Nonchalantly spinning the ball in Serge Ibaka’s face.

LeBron James’ apparent lack of respect for the Toronto Raptors has added some drama to their Eastern Conference semifinal — at the Raptors’ expense.

“We can’t allow that type of freedom, that type of comfort with him or any other player to be able to spin the ball like that,” Raptors guard Norm Powell said Friday morning after shootaround. “It’s disrespectful. But it shows us that we’re playing too soft. We need to come out with a mentality and a physicality and a force on both ends that says, ‘You’re not gonna get anything easy.’

“It shouldn’t have happened. It stops tonight.”

Cleveland won the first two games of the best-of-seven series at home. Game 3 was set for Friday night at Air Canada Centre.

Two nights earlier, James shot a three-pointer over Toronto shotblocker Ibaka, but not before pausing to spin the ball twice in his hands as if he was lining up to shoot a free throw.

Video of the play blew up on social media.

It was a similar story in Game 1 with James instructing point guard Kyrie Irving to toss the ball off the backboard for an alley-oop dunk you’d normally only see in an all-star game. He also snatched a beer from a sideline hostess and pretended to take a swig.

James had 74 points in the first two games and his hijinks were the topic of an ESPN basketball panel, which compiled a montage of similar James incidents, including a game this season in New York where the Cavs star appeared so bored he was playing the “waterbottle challenge” while on the bench.

Raptors coach Dwane Casey said his players should use James’ behaviour as motivation.