LeBron’s Cavs sweep Raptors, head to East finals — again

CLEVELAND — Order has been restored for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Four games with Toronto straightened them out.

LeBron James sent the Raptors into summer vacation for the third straight season as the Cavs completed another series sweep over the East’s top team with a 128-93 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.

“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 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.

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.

“From Game 1, they were wonderful,” James said of his teammates. “I was horrible in Game 1 and they picked it up for me. So I tried to follow their lead going into Game 2 and all the way through Game 4.” valuable even as bigger stars have sliced his playing time.

He was just what coach Brett Brown needed in a must-win game.

“I can tell you the Philadelphia 76ers spirit is just fine,” Brown said.

With NBA teams down 3-0 having lost all 129 series, the Sixers may need more than spirit to pull off this stunner.

Joel Embiid had 15 points and 13 rebounds and Ben Simmons had 19 points and 13 boards.

Jayson Tatum led the Celtics with 20 points and Marcus Morris had 17.

The big 0 in the box score: Confetti pieces fired into the sky. The Sixers scrapped their traditional confetti cannon celebration after it was prematurely shot at the end of regulation in a Game 3 overtime loss.

The Sixers were in control in what could be their last home game of the season.

Boston’s Jaylen Brown and coach Brad Stevens were whistled for technicals late in the third and the Sixers capitalized with two free throws and an Embiid dunk that had rapper Meek Mill standing.

Embiid chirped at Marcus Morris and the Celtics forward flashed a “3-0” with his hands.

McConnell buried a 3 for a 14-point lead that would soon make that combination obsolete.

Brown was desperate to spark the Sixers and benched slumping forward Robert Covington (0 for 14 combined in Games 1 and 3) for McConnell.

McConnell zipped inside for easy buckets, made the extra pass to keep the offense rolling and made the dive for loose balls.