The Cavaliers Killed The Raptors

For the second year in a row, the Cavaliers have handily disposed of the Raptors in the playoffs; this year, handily is an understatement there.

Cleveland finished up the sweep today, cruising to a 109-102 win to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals. While Toronto managed to make things a little more interesting in Game 4 than they had in any of the previous three, ultimately, it wasn’t enough. After being down by 12 points at halftime, the Raptors put together enough of a comeback to go up by one midway through the fourth quarter. But then Kyrie Irving went on a tear—mounting an 11-2 run by himself—and by the time that Toronto regained their footing, it was simply too late.

The Raptors were dealt a blow in being without Kyle Lowry for the second straight game, after the All-Star point guard tweaked his ankle in the second half of Game 2. Even if both Lowry and fellow guard DeMar DeRozan had been on top of their respective games, the Raptors would have only had an outside shot of giving the Cavs any serious trouble; with Lowry injured and DeRozan not doing much to step it up in his absence, they had none.

Game 4, at least, gave the Raptors the dignity of having one game that wasn’t a double-digit loss. That’s about it.