ECSF: P3 | (1) Toronto Raptors vs Cleveland Cavaliers (4) | CLE wins 4-0

[Splashin]

First, you want an apology from the Raps fans who razzed you. Okay, you were right and they were wrong. I kinda held my breath because LeBron has owned the Raps before. However, how can you say after that LeBron is the GOAT when he beat up a team that he's used to beating up? LeBron has got to get past the teams like the Celtics and the winners out of the WCF. Then he'll finally have the 4th ring which puts him into the HOF winners circle. You're putting the cart before the horse.

Agreed!! He couldn't even beat prime Dwight. Even Kobe did that. Kobe even beat Prime Duncan as well, while Lebron had to have some luck to beat old Duncan due to Ray Allen.

Lol it's always Jordan/Kobe fans putting lebron down. You make it seem as if those Kobe/lebron teams are on equal levels. One team had Ilgauskas/Andy/Moe Williams while the other had Gasol/bynum/Ariza or artest/fisher.

In other words Cavs were a 20 win team without lebron, while the lakers still would have made the playoffs with Kobe.

Lebron has faced 100x tougher finals opponents than Jordan ever did. (And I'm actually a bigger fan of 90s basketball) but its evident teams just weren't as stacked as they are now days.

2007 spurs and 2011 Mavs 100x better than any team MJ faced? Nice try guy.

[LAKESHOW]

I was about to shed a tear but this amazing generous. Lakers fan came to raptors board and gave amazing pep talk.

Thank you so much inventible

Laker fan, I come in peace.

It takes time to get this good. You are clearly getting better and better every year. Never mind the downers and haters when they are just there when it's a good and sunny day. Focus on what you've achieved this year, being number 1 team in your conference is a great achievement--It's been a hella great season.

Don't over react on LEbron James because it doesn't matter how much pieces you add, he has always a chance of beating you. To guarantee a win against Lebron you must be many many times stronger than his team a.k.a. a super team. Even then, he can eked out a win if you're not careful. Remember in 2016, he overcame and win against a superteam as an underdog down from 3-1 without any home-court advantage when 99.9 percent is saying it's all over, nobody can do this except him, not even Michael Jordan so don't over analyze it. Remember also that in 2015 when Kyrie and Kevin Love wass injured, he singlehandedly carry the Cavaliers team and put a scare on a 73-9 team--the point is, it's just incredibly hard to beat Lebron even superteams do not 100% guarantee you can win against him, so just focus on what you have right now and continue to improve. Keep your head up.

If you could somehow snag kawhi, that would be awesome. Again does not guarantee you can get past Lebron but that would surely improve your team.

I believe we should close this thread from the gracious Laker fans who are uplifting, even to others, from foreign lands. Well said my brother...well said. There is Hope!

[Andy123]

One point game in Toronto + game winner in game 3. It was a bit more competitive than it looks like.

I get that, but a sweep is remembered as a sweep. It's not like all 4 games came down to the last position, and it isn't even in the ECF. When's the last time this has happend? I know the Mavs laid a stinker against the Warriors 10 years ago.

Does it matter if its the finals or semis? It's still Lebron, and he swept the 60 win hawks just a few years ago.. A sweep is a sweep, sure, but there seems to be a whole lot of overreaction every year when a 1 seed struggles against Lebron..

Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk

Yeah it matters if it's the finals , lebron's record in the finals vs West teams is not that great , especially without a big 3 , he has never win the chip with less than three all star.

[Andy123]

Raps never could truly recover after that game 1. Although im fairly convinced they wouldve lost the series anyway with their atrocious D and terrible game plan/preparation. Also lebron being lebron.

Nonsense. If LBJ leaves the East, watch out for the Raptors.

Lebron will not likely leave the east. .. why take the hard path ? ..
And watch out for the raptors lol... Healthy Celtics team will ...Destroy them..

[LightTheBeam]

Agreed!! He couldn't even beat prime Dwight. Even Kobe did that. Kobe even beat Prime Duncan as well, while Lebron had to have some luck to beat old Duncan due to Ray Allen.

Lol it's always Jordan/Kobe fans putting lebron down. You make it seem as if those Kobe/lebron teams are on equal levels. One team had Ilgauskas/Andy/Moe Williams while the other had Gasol/bynum/Ariza or artest/fisher.

In other words Cavs were a 20 win team without lebron, while the lakers still would have made the playoffs with Kobe.

Lebron has faced 100x tougher finals opponents than Jordan ever did. (And I'm actually a bigger fan of 90s basketball) but its evident teams just weren't as stacked as they are now days.

2007 spurs and 2011 Mavs 100x better than any team MJ faced? Nice try guy.

Lol nice cherry pick chief.

The warriors and spurs are 100x tougher than Jordan ever faced in the finals. But nice attempt at picking arguably his 2 weakest opponents

[koningcosmo]

I get that, but a sweep is remembered as a sweep. It's not like all 4 games came down to the last position, and it isn't even in the ECF. When's the last time this has happend? I know the Mavs laid a stinker against the Warriors 10 years ago.

Does it matter if its the finals or semis? It's still Lebron, and he swept the 60 win hawks just a few years ago.. A sweep is a sweep, sure, but there seems to be a whole lot of overreaction every year when a 1 seed struggles against Lebron..

Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk

Yeah it matters if it's the finals , lebron's record in the finals vs West teams is not that great , especially without a big 3 , he has never win the chip with less than three all star.

the only team he faced with less all stars was the mavs but they were brilliant all playoffs. thunder had, durant wb harden and ibaka. spurs had parker ginobli kahwi and duncan. GSW curry thomson green iggy and now even durant. but hey lebron is the only one that needs all stars to win an championship.

[Splashin]

Lol it's always Jordan/Kobe fans putting lebron down. You make it seem as if those Kobe/lebron teams are on equal levels. One team had Ilgauskas/Andy/Moe Williams while the other had Gasol/bynum/Ariza or artest/fisher.

In other words Cavs were a 20 win team without lebron, while the lakers still would have made the playoffs with Kobe.

Lebron has faced 100x tougher finals opponents than Jordan ever did. (And I'm actually a bigger fan of 90s basketball) but its evident teams just weren't as stacked as they are now days.

2007 spurs and 2011 Mavs 100x better than any team MJ faced? Nice try guy.

Lol nice cherry pick chief.

The warriors and spurs are 100x tougher than Jordan ever faced in the finals. But nice attempt at picking arguably his 2 weakest opponents

If there weren't so many final losses to choose from I guess it'd be impossible to cherry pick eh?

[ratul]

I think the raps should run it back, reduce Demar's role and perhaps rid themselves of Casey. The alternatives are not great though.

[FJS]

I'm a fan of LeBron since I think non cavs/heat fans have not enjoyed him in our team but we have seen one of the best player ever for 15 years. Still I'm sorry for Raptors fans. They don't deserve that. If I were one of them I would expected finals at least and you could lose vs LeBron... but not in that way.

[MrSparkle]

Any argument that the Raptors are any good is out the window when you get swept in the second round with 2 blowouts.

Any team worth a damn will not let that happen.

Well, same thing happened to Atlanta. I don’t think they handled the situation well by nuking it. They hung onto the wrong guy instead of trading high (Schroeder). Ainge is good at selling high (doing 2 steps back 3 forward), although it ends up being better in the short-term anyway.

Right now they need to rebuild trade value, so as painful as it is, imo they should mainly stand pt and stress internal improvement unless hot deals come up.

[lambchop]

man the cavs even unleashed Cedi Osman in the 2nd quarter while up 2. They clearly didn't give a damn about the raps

[nikster]

I get that, but a sweep is remembered as a sweep. It's not like all 4 games came down to the last position, and it isn't even in the ECF. When's the last time this has happend? I know the Mavs laid a stinker against the Warriors 10 years ago.

Does it matter if its the finals or semis? It's still Lebron, and he swept the 60 win hawks just a few years ago.. A sweep is a sweep, sure, but there seems to be a whole lot of overreaction every year when a 1 seed struggles against Lebron..

Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk

Yeah it matters if it's the finals , lebron's record in the finals vs West teams is not that great , especially without a big 3 , he has never win the chip with less than three all star.

you need a good team to win championships. No player has done it without a great supporting cast. MJ probably had a better supporting cast than any player he faced in the finals. Also, care to explain why Jordan was getting bounced in the for the first 6 years of his career? Is it because he didn’t have the supporting cast to get him over the hump?

[AdagioPace]

is there a worse team historically than Toronto among those with a SRS > 7 ?

the 2007 Mavs at least had a superstar and honestly they were a bit unlucky matchup wise

[binjumper]

is there a worse team historically than Toronto among those with a SRS > 7 ?

the 2007 Mavs at least had a superstar and honestly they were a bit unlucky matchup wise

Who cares. you can only bash a team, so much. Being called Lebronto takes the cake.

[AdagioPace]

is there a worse team historically than Toronto among those with a SRS > 7 ?

the 2007 Mavs at least had a superstar and honestly they were a bit unlucky matchup wise

Who cares. you can only bash a team, so much. Being called Lebronto takes the cake.

nein, I'm not here to bash anybody. I was asking myself, just for curiosity. It's clear that Toronto's missing a superstar but.....

Other examples of fairly successful teams with a SRS > 7 WITHOUT a superstar were Kings 2002 (I don't consider Webber a superstar) and Spurs 2014 but both teams had ton of experience, chemistry and coaching. We can even include 00 Blazers (6.36 SRS) among those with no superstars that were PRETTY good

and all these teams's 4 best players were better than Toronto's 4 best players, collectively

[binjumper]

is there a worse team historically than Toronto among those with a SRS > 7 ?

the 2007 Mavs at least had a superstar and honestly they were a bit unlucky matchup wise

Who cares. you can only bash a team, so much. Being called Lebronto takes the cake.

nein, I'm not here to bash anybody. I was asking myself, just for curiosity. It's clear that Toronto's missing a superstar but.....

Other examples of fairly successful teams with a SRS > 7 WITHOUT a superstar were Kings 2002 (I don't consider Webber a superstar) and Spurs 2014 but both teams had ton of experience, chemistry and coaching. We can even include 00 Blazers (6.36 SRS) among those with no superstars that were PRETTY good

and all these teams's 4 best players were better than Toronto's 4 best players, collectively

Yeah I know I am just being depressed about it, but I'd assume its up there. Regular season stats put Toronto in Elite categories. Then we got curb stomped.

[JordansBulls]

Lol it's always Jordan/Kobe fans putting lebron down. You make it seem as if those Kobe/lebron teams are on equal levels. One team had Ilgauskas/Andy/Moe Williams while the other had Gasol/bynum/Ariza or artest/fisher.

In other words Cavs were a 20 win team without lebron, while the lakers still would have made the playoffs with Kobe.

Lebron has faced 100x tougher finals opponents than Jordan ever did. (And I'm actually a bigger fan of 90s basketball) but its evident teams just weren't as stacked as they are now days.

2007 spurs and 2011 Mavs 100x better than any team MJ faced? Nice try guy.

Lol nice cherry pick chief.

The warriors and spurs are 100x tougher than Jordan ever faced in the finals. But nice attempt at picking arguably his 2 weakest opponents

The Spurs team that had a 37 year old Tim Duncan a 22 year old Kawhi and went 7 games in round 1 as the #1 seed? Just because they smashed Lebron's team don't make them tougher. The Warriors basically came out of nowhere. They won 47 games and then the next year won 67 games with same team. Basically like the Cavs team from 2008 to 2009.

[Triple M]

no Cle vs. Bos/Phi thread yet???

[Triple M]

feel like the ECF starts on Sunday or Tuesday depending on the rest of Bos/Phi series

[joeyAdaMan]

When a #1 seed is defeated by LeBron, they suddenly become the worst #1 seed in history

Lebron is the most hated basketball player of this millennium....and it's all purely basketball related hate too...he's an unselfish/efficient/high bbiq player which RealGM usually GUSHES over...but half of the board hates him like he ran over their dog

LB is one of the most selfish players to ever play the game...he holds franchises hostage w contracts and signing his guys, lacks effort on the defensive end and points the finger at everyone else when a break down happens, cant play in a system unless its his system and makes guys like Love and Bosh become 3 pt specialists cause he needs to space the floor so HE can operate

Kyrie takes his destiny into his own hands by forcing a trade and threatening to get knee surgery if he doesn’t get his way: “Good for Kyrie! He can now be his own man and get out of the queens shadow!”

Lebron controls his own destiny by not signing a long term deal with a terrible franchise and wants to keep his options open: “he’s selfish”

Sorry dude, Kevin Love and Bosh ISO’s aren’t going to get you anywhere...each guy had 5-7 years to prove that with their respective teams...if you honestly would rather run an offense through them over Lebron then you don’t know basketball....I promise you both of those guys make 0 finals combined if they don’t agree to team up with Lebron....Bosh became a much more complete player and a better defender on the Heat...so what if he didn’t get 24 and 10? Lebron showed over the course of 7 seasons(half his friggen career) that he was willing to let Wade and then Kyrie handle the offense and even Kevin Love has gotten more than his fair share of post touches with Lebron...Bosh was always going to expand his game to the 3 because he’s a brilliant player and that’s where the league was heading at the time...so they had to change their 25-10 to 16-10...they won more and made the finals every year playing with Lebron...the only coach he had worth playing for in Spoelstra he eventually deferred to after being humbled in 2011...and, as far as getting his boys paid? Those guys helped Cleveland win a championship and played well along side their stars...they’ve just fallen off dramatically despite not even being past their prime and that’s Lebron’s fault how? I think you’re confusing self involved with selfish.....Lebron always compliments his teammates...so what if he’s arrogant? Every NBA Star who has ever lived is arrogant except maybe Tim Duncan...Lebron just isn’t subtle or sneaky about it and if he was you would just call him fake...the dude has been douchey, whiny, and has certainly said things that don’t need to be said...but I stand by my statement, on the court he’s unselfish to the point where he used to be criticized for finding an open shooter(you know, the smart basketball play?) instead of just taking it himself every time and playing hero ball....