Through three games of the Eastern Conference Semifinals, the Cavaliers have beaten the Raptors in a wide variety of ways. They won by way of an amazing comeback in Game 1. In Game 2, it was a dominating blowout, and Game 3 saw Toronto pull off a big second-half comeback before LeBron hit a ridiculous buzzer-beater to give Cleveland a 3-0 win.
LeBron has been phenomenal all series, just as he was in the first round, as he continues to lead the entire playoffs in scoring at 34.8 points per game along with 9.5 rebounds and 8.8 assists per game. James’ play has been nothing short of stunning as he almost single-handedly willed them past the Pacers and has continued that to torture the Raptors.
Game 4 represented an opportunity for the Cavs to earn a series sweep of Toronto and give James some much-needed rest. On the TNT broadcast, Brent Barry tried to explain James’ incredible postseason by way of a timely pop culture reference, bringing a toy Infinity Gauntlet from Avengers: Infinity War with him to the booth.
LeBron is probably the NBA’s closest thing to Thanos, in the sense that he’s a dominant individual physical force that requires a veritable superteam to try and stop and even that’s not enough when he’s at the peak of his powers. LeBron is very un-Thanos-like when it comes to, you know, general human compassion and being a good person, but on the court, the comparison can work.
The Raptors hope to keep LeBron from snatching that final Infinity Stone in Game 4 and snapping them into oblivion, but all signs point to the King ultimately rolling on to yet another Eastern Conference Finals soon.
