JR Smith draws the defense to him and drops off the dish to Ante Zizic who goes up strong for the slam.
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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- LeBron James said it hours before the Cavaliers stunned the East-leading Toronto Raptors Wednesday night.
"What is known is I'll be available, so we have a chance," was how he put it.
The Cavs are injured, they're disjointed, and they're searching. They hope to figure all of that out come playoff time so they can make a fourth straight Finals run.
But in the meantime, there's James, who posted his fourth consecutive game of 30 or more points in a 132-129 win for Cleveland at The Q.
"I don't know what Bron might have been thinking, but I always say there is one game during the season that changes your team," Cavs acting coach Larry Drew said. "That game can be early, it can be midway, it can be late. There's always one game that kind of changes your team, the mindset. And I really believe tonight's game might have done that for us."
James finished with 35 points, seven rebounds and 17 assists in 39 minutes. It was his sixth 15-assist game this season, a career high. He entered the game with his team trailing by three and nine minutes left, and closed with 14 points and five assists in the final frame.
He also ended the game with no turnovers for the first time since Nov. 20.
"I've never seen anything like it," Drew said. "I mean, 17 assists. What'd he have, 35 points and no turnovers? It's just amazing at what he does, night in and night out. How he sustains it, is just mind boggling. ... It just seems like every night, every night the things that he (does), I sit over there and I just kind of shake my head. I'm just glad that I'm coaching him."
James finished off the Raptors with three free throws (in four tries), and DeMar DeRozan's desperate attempt at a 3-pointer missed at the buzzer for Toronto.
As we mentioned at the top, this was a stunner. The Raptors scored 79 in the first half, not only setting a new season high for a Cavs opponent, but it was the most anyone has ever scored in a half against a James team (according to ESPN). They led by 15 at halftime.
Entering the fourth quarter, it was Toronto 99, Cavs 98. The Raptors, who had won 19 of 21, saw their franchise-long nine-game winning streak on the road come to a close.
Also, the Cavs were missing Kyle Korver (bereavement after the death of his brother), Tristan Thompson (sprained right ankle), Rodney Hood (lower back issue), Larry Nance Jr. (right hamstring), Cedi Osman (left hip flexor strain) and coach Tyronn Lue (leave for illness).
The players who were available did their part.
George Hill reappeared with 22 points on 10-of-11 shooting. He was shut out in Monday's win over the Bucks. His backcourt mate, Jose Calderon, was brilliant with 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting. Those two kept it close with Toronto's two All-Stars, guards Kyle Lowry (24 points) and DeRozan (21 points).
Cleveland is 19-8 when Calderon starts.
Kevin Love added 23 points and 12 rebounds for the Cavs in just his second game after missing 21 in a row with a broken bone in his left hand.
Love caught a pass from James in the corner and drained a 3 (the 1000th of his career) with 27 seconds left for a 128-124 advantage.
"Knowing Serge (Ibaka's) tendencies, once I turned the corner, he's going to try to track me down and try to make a play at the rim if I end up there," James said. "So, once I seen him have two eyes on me, I knew I could find Kev in the short corner and that's pretty much money."
Jeff Green added 15 points and JR Smith scored 10 off the bench for Cleveland.
The Raptors entered play third in the league in defense, and obviously struggled there. The Cavs were 15-of-24 from 3-point range (.625) and shot a blistering .603 from the field. Both percentages were season highs.
Toronto's other strength is its bench. No disappointment there. The Raptors' reserves outscored Cleveland's 58-23, led by Jakob Poeltl with 17 points. Fred VanVleet added 16 points -- 14 in the first half. Then again, the Cavs were missing five rotation players. So it's hard to judge if you're taking measurements for the playoffs.
Looking back, the Cavs swept the Raptors out of the second round last year and beat them in six games in the 2016 Eastern Conference finals.
Toronto handed Cleveland its worst loss of this season, a 134-99 drubbing on Jan. 11. They play again here on April 3.
The first quarter was something right out of an All-Star Game, or maybe a video game on rookie mode.
What's this mean?
Well, The Cavs shot 77 percent (17-of-22) overall and 5-of-6 on 3s. The Raptors were just a little below that (15-of-23, 6-of-10). James piled up nine points and eight assists, but he had the audacity to miss two shots (slacker). The Cavs led 42-38 when it was over.
NEXT: The Cavs finish this three-game homestand at 7:30 Friday night against the Phoenix Suns.
CLEVELAND -- After allowing a season-high 79 points in the first half and trailing the Toronto Raptors by 15 at intermission on Wednesday night, the Cavaliers stormed back to win 132-129. The game left acting head coach Larry Drew believing he witnessed a breakthrough performance.
"I always say there is one game during the season that changes your team," Drew said. "That game can be early, it can be midway, it can be late. There's always one game that kind of changes your team, the mindset. And I really believe tonight's game might have done that for us."
It might be too late for Cleveland, No. 3 in the Eastern Conference, to catch the East-leading Raptors in the standings; the Cavs have to go 11-0 the rest of the way while Toronto would have to go 0-10 for that to happen. But it's not too late to build some positive momentum before the postseason.
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"Turn around the season? We only got like 11 games left," LeBron James said when informed of Drew's declaration. "The season is almost over. So we want to continue just to work [on] our habits, and we'll see what happens."
What has been happening for James lately has been nothing short of historic. Seemingly on a nightly basis, he does something that sets him apart in the annals of the game.
With a final stat line of 35 points, 17 assists and zero turnovers Wednesday night, he became the first player with 35-plus points, 15-plus assists and zero turnovers since the NBA started recording turnovers in 1977-78, according to the Elias Sports Bureau research.
When asked what he was more pleased with, the 17 assists or the zero turnovers, James chose the latter.
"The no turnovers, for sure," James said. "If you don't turn the ball over, it doesn't allow teams to get in transition versus our set defense. It gives us extra possessions, extra shots at the basket. So no turnovers, just taking care of the basketball, is good for me."
Over his past 19 games, dating back to Feb. 7, James is averaging a triple-double with 30.5 points on 55 percent shooting (40.6 percent from 3-point territory), 10.4 rebounds and 10.5 assists.
The 80 total points he scored or assisted on against Toronto was the second-highest total he has ever accounted for in the 1,349 games he has played in the regular season and playoffs combined, according to ESPN Stats & Information data.
But he insisted he wasn't trying to send a message to the Raptors about what they could expect if they face the Cavs in the playoffs.
"It's a good win for us because of how depleted we are on our roster and everything that's been going on," James said. "It's a good win for us against a very good opponent. But I don't need to remind anybody about what my teams are capable of doing. So that wasn't a factor."
However, there were legitimate mitigating factors affecting both teams. The Cavs were missing five rotation players: Larry Nance Jr. (hamstring), Rodney Hood (back), Cedi Osman (hip), Tristan Thompson (ankle) and Kyle Korver, who is away from the team as he grieves the death of his younger brother Kirk. The Raptors were playing on the road on the second night of a back-to-back for their 10th game in the past 16 days; they were without their leading bench scorer, CJ Miles, who was out with the flu.
The comeback nature of Cleveland's win undeniably got Toronto's attention, though.
"They're still a hell of a team; you can't take anything away from them," Raptors guard DeMar DeRozan said. "They're still a top team in our conference and in this league. You can't overlook 'em or underlook 'em -- no type of way, no matter what type of changes they make."
Despite the changes, one thing seems to always stay the same: James.
"I've never seen anything like it, to be perfectly honest with you," Drew said of James. "I mean, 17 assists. What'd he have, 35 points and no turnovers? It's just amazing at what he does, night in and night out. How he sustains it is just mind-boggling. And he's just one of those guys. First of all, he is so driven to win and to be the best. What he brings for us, I mean it's just -- you can't describe it. But he is the guy we know that we go through and depend on a lot, and we need him to bring the other guys along, which he has done.
"It just seems like every night, every night the things that he [does], I sit over there and I just kind of shake my head. I'm just glad that I'm coaching him."
With 3:17 remaining in the third quarter and his Cavaliers down by seven, LeBron James took a charge on Jakob Poeltl. On the surface, there was nothing special about this play. Basketball players make basketball plays, and taking a charge is as selfless of a basketball play as someone can make.
The thing is, the way the Cavs reacted after James took that charge made it seem as though they had just won the NBA Finals. The bench collectively jumped out of their seats. The Quicken Loans Arena erupted with applause. James himself hopped up with energy and excitement. It was the play the Cavaliers needed all game long.
Maybe all season long.
The Cavaliers trailed by as many as 15 points in the second quarter. They gave up 79 points in the first half, the most-ever by a James’ team. But they looked like a rejuvenated basketball team after James absorbed the contact from Poeltl’s drive. They trailed by 15 to end the first half but threw haymakers at the Raptors in the third quarter.
Cleveland eventually completed its comeback, defeating Toronto, 132-129. It was their first victory over a major playoff opponent since they defeated the Celtics and then the Thunder just before the all-star break.
James’ charge taken wasn’t solely responsible for Cleveland’s massive second-half comeback. He finished with an amazing stat line of 34 points, 17 assists, seven rebounds, and zero turnovers. Only 15 players in NBA history have had more than 17 assists without turning the ball over.
James absolutely took over in the fourth quarter, though. He scored 14 points on three-of-four shooting from the field, draining seven of his nine free-throw attempts. When he blew right by Poeltl for a vicious dunk midway through the quarter, there was little doubt in anyone’s mind that he was going to see this one all the way through.
Kevin Love also came up huge in his second game back from a hand injury with 23 points and 12 rebounds, including a clutch three with 27 seconds left to put the Cavs up by four.
George Hill had 22 points on 10-of-11 shooting. In all, the Cavaliers’ starting five scored in double figures. And they defeated a Raptors team with a firm hold on the East’s No. 1 seed.
But Cleveland’s wild second-half comeback started and ended with James. And that charge, as basic as it was on the surface, was a springboard for Cleveland’s beautiful second half.
It may have been the launching pad the Cavaliers needed to catapult them into a deep postseason run.
