James, Cavs sweep Raptors; 76ers beat Celtics to stay alive
LeBron James sent the Toronto Raptors into summer vacation for the third straight season as the Cleveland Cavaliers completed another series sweep over the East’s top team with a 12893 win in Game 4 on Monday night to advance to the conference finals for the fourth consecutive year.
James finished with 29 points, 11 assists and spent some of the final 7:38 dancing near the bench during Cleveland’s 10th straight playoff win over Toronto, which changed its system, its roster and its approach but still can’t beat the game’s best player.
Pushed to the max for seven games by Indiana in the first round, the Cavs took care of Toronto quickly. The Raptors had the league’s second-best record, the No. 1 seed in the playoffs.
“It was a great series for us,” James said. “We had a lot of challenges to start the series knowing the domination they had in the regular season. We had a great game plan and we just tried to execute it.”
Kevin Love added 23 points and J.R. Smith 15 for the Cavs, who can now rest while waiting for the BostonPhiladelphia semifinal series to end.
Jonas Valanciunas scored 18 and Kyle Lowry had 10 assists to lead the exasperated Raptors. Toronto’s frustration hit its peak late in the third when All-Star DeMar DeRozan was ejected for a flagrant foul.
Cleveland will be appearing in its fourth straight conference final despite a turbulent regular season and a bumpy start to the playoffs.
All five Cleveland starters scored in double figures and Love continued his spring rebirth after struggling against the physical Pacers. 76ERS 103, CELTICS 92 >> T.J. McConnell turned a surprise start into the save of the season and Dario Saric scored 25 points to help Philadelphia stave off elimination in Game 4.
The Sixers still face daunting odds headed into Game 5 and trailing 3-1 in the Eastern Conference semifinals: No NBA team has ever won
a series down 3-0.
McConnell had a career-high 19 points, seven rebounds and five assists in only his second start of the season and meshed well in the backcourt with Ben Simmons. The crowd chanted “TJ! TJ!” each time he touched the ball in the fourth and proved why he has been so valuable even as bigger stars have sliced his playing time.
Jayson Tatum led the Celtics with 20 points and Marcus Morris had 17. PISTONS >> Stan Van Gundy will not return to the Detroit Pistons as coach or president of basketball operations.
The Pistons went 39-43 this season, missing the playoffs for the third time in four years under Van Gundy. They’ve made the postseason just once in the past nine years.