James guides Cavaliers to clean sweep of Raptors
CLEVELAND: LeBron James recorded 29 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds as the Cleveland Cavaliers completed a fourgame sweep of Toronto by rolling to a 12893 victory over the visiting Raptors yesterday.
Kevin Love added 23 points to help the fourthseeded Cavaliers reach the Eastern Conference finals for the fourth straight campaign.
Kyle Korver scored 16 points, JR Smith added 15 on 6of6 shooting, and George Hill had 12 points as the Cavs dominated topseeded Toronto over the final 31 minutes.
Cleveland recorded its 10th straight postseason triumph over the Raptors, eliminating them for the third straight season.
‘‘It was a great series for us,’’ James said in a postgame television interview on TNT.
‘‘We had a lot of challenges before the series knowing the domination they had in the regular season. So we had a great game plan and we just tried to execute it as close to 48 minutes as possible.’’
Toronto star DeMar DeRozan scored 13 points before being ejected late in the third quarter.
Backcourt partner Kyle Lowry had just five points to go with 10 assists.
Jonas Valanciunas scored a teambest 18 points for the Raptors. CJ Miles notched 13 points, Serge Ibaka added 12 and Delon Wright tallied 10.
The Raptors became the third NBA team to be swept in a series before the conference final stage.
The 1969 Baltimore Bullets dropped four in a row to the New York Knicks in the Eastern Division semifinals, and the 1951 Philadelphia Warriors fell 20 to the Syracuse Nationals in the Eastern Division semifinals.
The only other No 1 seed to be swept at any point over the past 15 years was the 2015 Atlanta Hawks, who also fell 40 to James and the Cavaliers.
Dario Saric had a playoff careerhigh 25 points, and TJ McConnell contributed a careerbest 19 points and seven assists as the host Philadelphia 76ers staved off elimination with a 10392 win over the Boston Celtics in game four yesterday.
Ben Simmons totalled 19 points, 13 rebounds and five assists, and Joel Embiid finished with 15 points and 13 boards for the 76ers, who trail the bestofseven Eastern Conference semifinals series 31.
Jayson Tatum had 20 points and Marcus Morris 17 for the Celtics.
Boston won the first two games of the series at home before earning a 10198 overtime victory in game three on Sunday. The Celtics are 14 on the road in the playoffs.
No team in NBA history has won a series after trailing 30.
‘‘We have nothing to lose,’’ McConnell told TNT after the game.
‘‘Our coach told us . . . the team that’s winning [30] is 1290, so we really have nothing to lose. We’re playing our hearts out and just trying to be that one team.’’ —Field Level Media