INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — Upon their return from Canada, the Cavaliers had nothing to declare at U.S. Customs.
Their lead in the Eastern Conference finals already had been confiscated.
Cleveland was stripped of its dominance and a 2-0 advantage during a long weekend in Toronto, where the growing-confident-by-the-shot Raptors, propelled by a crowd and city that believes they can make the NBA finals, won two straight games.
“They flipped the script on us,” Cavs Coach Tyronn Lue said.
After being throttled by a combined 50 points in Games 1 and 2, the Raptors turned a series that began with blowouts into a best-of-three, winner-take-all slugfest. There wasn’t supposed to be a Game 5 and now there will be a Game 6 as well.
Unable to contain Toronto guards Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan from scoring or keep Bismack Biyombo off the boards, the Cavs have put themselves in a predicament.
Gone is their entire margin for error, some of their swagger and any aura of invincibility that surrounded them after reeling off 10 wins to open the postseason.
And as the teams prepared for Game 5 on Wednesday night, the pressure has swung back on LeBron James and the Cavs, who spent Tuesday in film sessions breaking down went wrong during their visit to Toronto.
There was plenty to process in Monday night’s 105-99 loss.
Cleveland came out flat, falling behind by 16 in the first half and relying too much on 3-point shooting, which has gone cold.
The Cavs rallied with a smaller lineup that didn’t include the suddenly struggling Kevin Love, but didn’t have enough down the stretch. Costly defensive lapses and terrific shot-making by Lowry and DeRozan helped the Raptors even the series.
“Now it’s our chance to come back, get some home-cooked meals and play in front of our home crowd,” Lue said.
James, who logged 46 minutes in Game 4, didn’t speak to the media on Tuesday.
Lue has carefully administered James’ minutes in the second half of the regular season and playoffs, hoping to keep him as fresh as possible. James pushed himself harder in Game 4 and Lue said that was the plan.
“We talked about it before the game and the night before how his body felt and wanting to play more minutes because we knew it was a big game for us, but it didn’t work out,” Lue said.
James maximized his minutes in Game 4, scoring 29 on 11-of-16 shooting, but took just one shot in the final 5:28.
“LeBron knows when he has to take over a basketball game, but also knows he has to trust his teammates,” Lue said.
THE NATIONAL Basketball Association players union, in talks with the league over how to share about $6 billion in annual revenue, hired Jefferies Group as an adviser.
The players asked the New York-based investment bank “to identify all possible current and future revenue streams on behalf of their members,” said firm spokesman Richard Khaleel.
It’s the first time Michele Roberts has led labor talks since she became executive director of the NBPA in 2014, and turning to an investment bank signals new strategy for the union, which in the past sought counsel of academics and economists.
Franchise values have tripled over the past four years, according to Forbes. And next season is the first year of a new TV contract that will pay $24 billion over nine years, about triple what the league now gets.
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