Forward LeBron James once again led the Cleveland Cavaliers to a 128-93 victory over the Toronto Raptors in the fourth game of the Conference semifinals that won by a 4-0 sweep to the best of seven and reached the finals for the fourth consecutive season.
Meanwhile, the Raptors, who had had the best record during the regular season, went back on vacation early due to James and the Cavaliers who eliminated them for the third consecutive season.
Now the Cavaliers will have to wait to see who will be their opponent in the finals, where they will defend the title, with the winner of the tie played by the Boston Celtics against the Philadelphia Sixers and dominate the first 3-1 to the best of seven .
James contributed a double-double of 29 points, 11 assists, eight rebounds, two turnovers, two losses and a rebound even though he spent the last eight minutes of the fourth period celebrating what was to be the Cavaliers’ tenth straight win against the Raptors in playoff games.
Nothing of what the Raptors presented in the field, in terms of the technical strategy presented by the Canadian team to face the best player in the world could stop it and the story was the same as always, a new defeat.
Along with James power forward Kevin Love also managed 23 points that left him as the second highest scorer, in a list of the five starters who had double-digit numbers.
While the escorts Kyle Korver and JRSmith scored 16 and 15 points, respectively, and baseman George Hill reached 12 to complete the list of the Cavaliers’ top scorers, who were always in control of the score and the pace of the game. .
The Spanish base José Manuel Calderón this time did have eight minutes of action with the Cavaliers and as a reserve he contributed two points.
Calderon scored the two shots he made from the personnel line, captured a defensive rebound, gave an assist and committed a personal foul.
The player of Villanueva de la Serena will have the opportunity to play for the first time in his career a final of the Eastern Conference after having eliminated the team with which he debuted in the NBA and with which he was almost eight seasons.
The Lithuanian pivot Jonas Valanciunas, who came out on reserve, with 18 points and five rebounds, led the attack of the Raptors, who had five players with double-digit numbers.
Among them were guard DeMar DeRozan, who reached 13 goals before he was sent off at the end of the third period after committing a flagrant foul, motivated by the frustration of seeing how the Cavaliers had completely annulled them as a team.
The same ones provided by the guard-forward CJ Miles, who scored 5 of 11 field goals, failed the two attempts of triples he made, and captured three rebounds as a starter.
The Spanish Congolese power forward Serge Ibaka returned to the starting lineup and played only 18 minutes, but was consistent in the attack by contributing 12 points after scoring 5 of 8 field goals, including 2 of 3 triples.
But he had no role in the game within the area to capture an offensive rebound, put a stopper, lost three balls and committed two personal fouls, being next to ReRozan two of the team’s key players who failed in the semifinals.
Base Kyle Lowry took charge of directing the Raptors’ attack by spreading 10 assists, but scored only five points after failing 5 of 7 field goals, including 3 of 4 3-pointers, and did not go to the personnel line. efe
