CLEVELAND: LeBron James called Shaquille O’Neal the most dominant player of James’ lifetime. The Cavs’ superstar, however, might one day be considered the most dominant of his generation.
James posted his 15th postseason triple-double on the same night he moved past O’Neal on the all-time scoring list and the Cavaliers remained perfect in these playoffs with a 108-89 victory Thursday in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals.
James had 23 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists, Kyrie Irving scored 26 points and Kevin Love had 19 points for the Cavs, who became the fourth team in history to start a postseason 10-0.
DeMar DeRozan scored 22 points and Kyle Lowry scored 10 points for the Raptors, who go home in an 0-2 deficit for the first time this postseason.
Raptors coach Dwane Casey shuffled his starting lineup and his rotation, but it didn’t make much of a difference. Luis Scola, who played a total of 20 minutes in the Raptors’ last 11 playoff games, started at power forward in place of Patrick Patterson.
Casey’s rotation has been altered by the absence of center Jonas Valanciunas, who remains sidelined with a sprained ankle. Casey juggled his rotation to bring Lowry back to start the second quarter after the Cavs blew Game 1 open at the start of the second quarter with both Lowry and DeRozan on the bench. This time, the Raptors stayed close until the end of the quarter.
The Cavs scored 16 of the final 18 points in the first half after the game was tied at 46 with 4:05 left in the second quarter. The Raptors missed their last nine shots of the half and each member of the Cavs’ Big Three took turns extending the lead.
Lowry again struggled through a miserable shooting night, missing seven of his first eight shots before finally making a 3-pointer with 8:31 left in the third quarter. He was 5-of-20 shooting in this series prior to that basket, including missing his first 11 3-point attempts. He didn’t attempt his first three throws in this series until the fourth quarter Thursday.
The Cavs continue to storm through the East with little resistance. While the Golden State Warriors and Oklahoma City Thunder continue to fight in the West, the Cavs are winning playoff games by an average of more than 12 points. Whether that makes the East weak or the Cavs just that dominant, coach Tyronn Lue doesn’t really care.
“You’ve got to play who’s in front of you every single night. Whether they call the East weak or not, we’ve got to beat these teams,” he said. “These teams have beaten a lot of West Coast teams throughout the regular season, so I don’t care what they say. We know we have something we’re trying to accomplish, and the East right now is where we’re at. Until we get to the West, we can’t do anything about that.”
J.R. Smith scored 12 points, Tristan Thompson had nine points and 12 rebounds for the Cavs and Matthew Dellavedova scored 10 points off the bench. Dellavedova limped out of the game after turning his ankle in the second half and did not return.
Game 3 is Saturday night at Toronto.
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at www.ohio.com/cavs. Follow him on Twitter www.twitter.com/JasonLloydABJ.