Thanks in large part to yet another iconic performance from LeBron James in Thursday night’s 128-110 Game 2 victory, the Cleveland Cavaliers are now leading their Eastern Conference Semifinals matchup against the Toronto Raptors, 2-0. If history can be used as a gauge of what’s to come, the Raptors could be in trouble.
Since the beginning of the 2015 playoffs, the Cavs have managed to take a 2-0 series lead on nine different occasions, which includes their current matchup against the Raptors.
Via Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com:
Only twice out of the first eight series was there more than four games — the 2016 conference finals, where the Raptors won games 3 and 4 (both were in Toronto) to momentarily tie the series, and the 2017 Eastern finals where the Boston Celtics won Game 3.
James has been an absolute monster in this season’s playoffs, but he was especially monstrous in Thursday night’s game. In his 41 minutes of action, the King racked up 43 points on 19-28 shooting from the field (1-3 from beyond the arc), 14 assists, eight rebounds and one steal.
Though the odds are in Cleveland’s favor, James refuses to look past the task at hand.
“There’s no fast tracking the process where you say, ‘OK, let’s try to end this thing so we can get some rest.’ You do that and you get a lot of rest,” James told Cleveland.com after Saturday morning’s shootaround. “You do that and you can be home and end up losing 4-2.
“You don’t cheat the game gods. I’ve never been a part of that.”
Saturday night’s Game 3 affair is set to tip inside Quicken Loans Arena at 8:30 p.m. EST with ABC having live broadcast coverage. Let’s see if the Cavs can keep their momentum rolling.