4- 0 sweep James, Cavs eliminate Raptors
CLEVELAND — Once the sweeping was done, LeBron James peeled off his jersey and headed toward the locker room. He stopped on the way to share a moment with his two sons, who held basketballs while patiently waiting to take some shots.
James hugged his kids and rubbed their heads. He treated the Toronto Raptors the same way. Child’s play. James ended Toronto’s season for the third straight season with a second consecutive fourgame sweep as Cavs advanced to the Eastern Conference finals for the fourth year in a row with a 128- 93 win in Game 4 on Monday night.
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 — again.
“They were a wellbalanced, put- together team this year,” James said, praising a team he has tormented. “They’ve built a very good team that can succeed in the postseason. I felt coming into the series this would be a tough challenge for us.”
Turns out, the Raptors still weren’t good enough.
Kevin Love added 23 points and J. R. Smith 15 for the Cavs, who can now rest while waiting for the Boston- Philadelphia 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. There will be no historic comeback. Of the 130 teams to take a 3- 0, all of them have won the series.
“They wanted it more than us,” Valanciuas said. “That’s about it. It was the mental stuff, not the basketball stuff that hurt us the most. It’s not like we didn’t want to ( win). We wanted to, but I think it was the frustration. We just lost our head.”
Cleveland’s back in the East finals again despite a turbulent regular season and a bumpy start to the playoffs after the Pacers pushed the Cavs to the brink of elimination.