It's a new series, but the Raptors have the same problem: LeBron James.

OK, so maybe there’s something to this whole “play LeBron a bunch of minutes, sweep the opposition and then get a week off” thing.

The Cleveland Cavaliers didn’t need much time at all to find their rhythm after eight days off following a first-round sweep of the Indiana Pacers. They opened their second-round matchup with the Toronto Raptors with a 10-3 run, punctuated by a very loud and stylish off-the-backboard alley-oop dunk by LeBron James, and never looked back, leaiding by as many as 25 points on their way to a 116-105 win that gave them a 1-0 lead in their best-of-seven series.

The Raptors took a 3-0 lead on a Kyle Lowry jumper 67 seconds into the game. Kevin Love canned a triple to tie the game on the next Cleveland possession, and the Raptors never led again.

They’d get close a few times. They tied the game on a pair of DeMar DeRozan free throws midway through the first quarter, got within two on an old-fashioned three-point play by Kyle Lowry midway through the second, and cut the deficit to seven after a pair of hooks by center Jonas Valanciunas three minutes into the third. Each time, though, the Cavs had an answer.



Dan Devine.
Full story at Yahoo News.