Cleveland Cavaliers beat Toronto Raptors to reach NBA finals

NEW YORK, United States - LeBron James scored 33 points as the Cleveland Cavaliers booked their place in the NBA finals with a 113-87 victory over the Toronto Raptors on Friday.

James contributed six assists and 11 rebounds as the Cavs completed a 4-2 series victory to advance to the finals for a second year running.

The Cavaliers will face either the Golden State Warriors or the Oklahoma City Thunder in next week's finals. Oklahoma City currently lead the Western Conference series 3-2 ahead of Game Six on Saturday.

James will be playing in the NBA finals for the sixth straight year. The Cleveland star reached the finals for four years in a row with the Miami Heat before returning to Cleveland in 2014.

"I knew this was going to be tough game coming to this building -- I just had to bring my game, I had to be in attack mode from the beginning, trust my shots," said a delighted James. "I knew once my shots started going in I could start getting my team-mates involved and they were able to carry me down the stretch."

The Cavaliers' appearance in the finals caps a rollercoaster season which saw head coach David Blatt fired in January and replaced with Tyronn Lue.

James himself had earlier in the season voiced doubts as to whether the Cavaliers had the ability to challenge for the title -- reservations which seemed a distant memory in the afterglow of Friday's win.

"We've covered a lot of ground and I still believe we can get better," James said.

"We've had our ups and downs. But take nothing away from what we've done -- our guys are unbelievable, our coaching staff are unbelievable."

The Cavaliers had taken a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series against Toronto before being jolted by back-to-back defeats as the Raptors leveled at 2-2.

- 'Big-time leadership' -

But Cleveland reasserted their superiority on Wednesday to regain the initiative with a win in Game Five before ramming home their advantage to silence the home crowd in Toronto on Friday.

It was James's first 30-point game of the 2015 postseason, with the Cavaliers also benefiting from big contributions from Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. Irving finished with 30 points with Love adding 20 as well as 12 rebounds and four assists.

Toronto meanwhile brought the curtain down on their first ever appearance in the Eastern Conference finals with a 35-point display from Kyle Lowry, while DeMar DeRozan added 20 points.

James is looking forward to having Irving and Love firing on all cylinders after the bitter memory of last season, when both players missed the bulk of the NBA finals against Golden State with injuries.

"I'm so proud of those two guys," James said. "They worked their tails off through adversity to get back. Big-time performances and big-time leadership from those two guys and I'm happy to be a part of it."

Cavs coach Lue meanwhile said he was looking forward to challenging in the finals with a full complement of players.

"Getting back to the championship with everybody healthy, it's our chance to really show what we can do," said Lue, praising James for helping the Cavaliers get off to a solid early start with a 14-point display in the first quarter.

"We needed LeBron to set the tone for us early and I thought he did that," Lue said.

"I needed him to take charge and take the lead in that first quarter. He really did that for us tonight. He's just a great player. He's a proven winner.

Love attributed the Cavs' victory to team unity. "We all have trust in each other, we all have each other's back," he said.

"We've grown throughout the season. We're back we're we want to be but we've got a lot of work to do."

Love's sentiment was shared by Lue.

"The biggest thing that I'm proud of is that we came together. We trusted," Lue said.

"You could see that on the floor. It's beautiful to watch."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Cavs loss puts LeBron's Finals streak in jeopardy

TORONTO - LeBron James has had a standing reservation with the NBA Finals for five consecutive years but the best player of his generation is suddenly in jeopardy of seeing his remarkable streak come to an end.

James has been playing some of the best basketball of his career during the 2016 playoffs but was unable to rally the Cleveland Cavaliers to a victory on Monday that would have all but punched their ticket to the championship round.

Instead, the Cavaliers fell 105-99 to the Toronto Raptors, who tied up the best-of-seven Eastern Conference final at 2-2 with a second consecutive home victory.

James, determined to bring a maiden NBA championship to the Cavaliers and snap a city-wide title drought in all major sports that dates back to the National Football League-winning Cleveland Browns in 1964, had a team-high 29 points in the loss.

"It wasn't enough because we got off to a horrible first half once again in this building and you're playing catch-up again," James told reporters of his team's 57-41 deficit after two quarters.

"We are not starting off games the right way. The second quarter has been really bad for us here, so we got to do a better job of that and we can't dig ourselves such a deep hole."

Knowing his legacy will be measured by the number of titles he wins, the next few days could be among the most important of the two-time NBA champion's career.



Getting to the NBA Finals in five consecutive years is no easy feat and at 31, James needs to take advantage of every opportunity to add a third title to his resume, especially when his team has ventured this deep into the playoffs.

But since James knows more than most about what it takes to reach the NBA Finals, he is not ready to panic with his Cavs heading home for Wednesday's pivotal Game Five.

In fact, James, playing his second season back in Cleveland after winning two championships in four seasons with the Miami Heat, was very satisfied with his performance in the loss.

"For me, I gave everything that I had in the 46 minutes that I played," James said. "Both offensively and defensively I felt great. I tried to get my guys involved and get myself involved so my individual gameplan was pretty good."

The defeat marked the first time since 2010 that Cleveland, who were coming off a 15-point Game Three defeat in Toronto, lost consecutive playoff games to an Eastern Conference foe.

Toronto opened up an 18-point lead late in the second quarter but Cleveland battled back and pulled ahead with eight minutes to play.

But Toronto, powered by a combined 67 points from Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, took advantage of a handful of defensive mistakes by Cleveland to regain the lead and breathe new life into the series.

"Even at the end of the day, as well as they played, we still had a chance to win the ball game," James added. "What we can't do is a dig a hole like we did in the first half."

(Editing by John O'Brien)

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Raptors get on the board with Game 3 win over Cavaliers

The Toronto Raptors got their first win of the Eastern Conference Finals on Saturday with DeMar DeRozan scoring 32 points in a 99-84 Game 3 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The Raptors led by as many as 18 in the second quarter, were ahead by 13 at halftime, and were up by 15 early in the fourth.

The Cavaliers, who did not lose a game in the first two rounds of the playoffs, cut the deficit to eight before Raptors center Bismack Biyombo made six successive points to increase the lead to 14 with 3:38 to play.

Kyle Lowry added 20 points for the Raptors, Cory Joseph had 14, DeMarre Carroll 10, and Patrick Patterson 10. Biyombo grabbed a franchise playoff record 26 rebounds and added seven points and four blocks.

LeBron James scored 24 points for the Cavaliers, who won the first two games of the series in Cleveland. J.R. Smith added 22 for Cleveland while Kyrie Irving had 13 and Channing Frye 11.

DeRozan's apparent 3-pointer at the buzzer to end the first quarter was waved off after a review showed time had expired. Toronto settled for a 27-24 lead entering the second quarter.

Lowry picked up his third foul of the game with 8:07 left in the second quarter.

Joseph's 3-pointer with 4:09 to play in the second quarter gave the Raptors a 49-37 lead. After a Cavaliers' miss, Carroll made a 3-point shot for a 15-point Toronto lead. Patterson's layup with 1:22 to play boosted the advantage to 18.

James closed the half with a 3-pointer and the Raptors led 60-47.

Biyombo had no points but grabbed 16 first-half rebounds for Toronto. DeRozan led all scorers in the first half with 21 points. James led Cleveland with 14.

The Cavaliers opened the second half on a surge and had the lead down to six with 9:44 to play in the third quarter when James made a free throw after he was fouled making a layup.

After the Raptors went up by 11, Smith hit two straight 3-pointers to trim the lead to five with 4:20 to play in the third.

Joseph hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to end the third quarter to give Toronto an 80-70 lead.

The Raptors scored the first five points of the fourth quarter to go up by 15.

Richard Jefferson made a layup with 6:38 to play to cut Toronto's lead to 10.

Biyombo's hook shot put Toronto ahead by 12 points with 4:39 to play and his layup extended the lead to 91-77.

Biyombo was called for a flagrant foul on James and the two free throws cut the lead to 12 but the Cavaliers could not take advantage of their possession awarded after the foul shots.

Joseph's pullup jumper with 1:38 to play restored Toronto's 14-point lead.

(Editing by Peter Rutherford)

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com