The buildup for this series truly began in February, with some pointed comments from Golden State's Draymond Green.Or in October, when Houston won at Golden State on ring night.Or in June, when the Rockets landed Chris Paul.Whenever it started, however it started, it's clear that this is the series that the NBA-watching world wanted. Western Conference finals, Golden State versus Houston, Game 1 on Monday on the Rockets' home floor. Series winner to the NBA Finals, series loser will undoubtedly feel like they let a championship ring slip away."They got us. We got them," Green said. "Got to go out there and play. We'll see who better."After more than 10 months of playing, posturing and some pontificating, it really is that simple.This Rockets team was assembled — the key being the trade for Paul last summer — with hopes of unseating the reigning champion Warriors from their perch atop the NBA. So far, so good. Houston set a franchise record with 65 wins in the regular season, went 2-1 against... [More]

TORONTO (AP) — To DeMar DeRozan, regular-season and playoff basketball are as different as checkers and chess.In LeBron James, DeRozan and the Toronto Raptors keep running into the ultimate grandmaster. Their inability to beat him might force coach Dwane Casey into a cruel checkmate.Toronto's postseason fizzled out against a familiar foe on Monday night when James and the Cleveland Cavaliers finished off back-to-back second-round sweeps of Toronto. It's the third straight year the Cavs have bounced the Raptors from the playoffs.After a franchise-record 59 wins, good for the top seed in the Eastern Conference, it was as tough a defeat as DeRozan has endured."This is probably the toughest, most frustrating, difficult, lowest feeling I've had," DeRozan said Tuesday. "You get to that point where you're standing firm through everything and you feel like you can't get knocked down again, and you realize you do get knocked back down again. It's kind of the worst feeling."Teammate Kyle Lowry was... [More]

CLEVELAND (AP) — Rodney Hood's playoff problems now extend to off the court.Hood, who has seen his role reduced during his first postseason with Cleveland, will not be fined or suspended for refusing to enter Monday night's Game 4 blowout win over the Toronto Raptors in the fourth quarter, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press.Hood feels bad about the incident that happened with 7:38 left in the fourth quarter, and he expressed remorse on Tuesday to team officials about becoming a distraction, said the person who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.The person said disciplinary actions against Hood "were never a consideration."The Athletic first reported that Hood had angered teammates and others in the organization by rejecting coach Tyronn Lue's instruction to enter the game.With Cleveland leading 110-80 and on its way to sweeping the series, the Cavs called timeout to replace superstar LeBron James. Lue told Hood... [More]

CLEVELAND (AP) — A person familiar with the situation says the Cleveland Cavaliers will not fine or suspend forward Rodney Hood for refusing to enter Game 4 against Toronto.The Athletic first reported that Hood declined coach Tyronn Lue's request to replace LeBron James with 7:38 left and the Cavs leading by 30, angering his teammates and others in the organization. Hood spoke to team officials about the incident Tuesday and will not be disciplined, said the person who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.The person said Hood expressed regret for the incident and "didn't want to be a distraction."Hood has struggled in the playoffs after being acquired in a February trade from Utah. The 25-year-old is averaging 4.6 points in 17 minutes and hasn't looked comfortable in Cleveland's offense.The Cavs advanced to the Eastern Conference finals by sweeping the Raptors.__More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/tag/NBAbasketball

CLEVELAND (AP) — Their doubters are dropping off as quickly as the competition.Only one team has advanced to the conference finals in these NBA playoffs, and it's the same squad that looked vulnerable during a chaotic regular season, beatable in the postseason and was one loss from a possible franchise collapse.The ending's been postponed. The Cleveland Cavaliers aren't nearly finished.On Monday night, the Cavs completed their second straight four-game sweep of the Toronto Raptors, the East's top team and the one that was supposedly built to dethrone them, with a 128-93 win in Game 4 that has perhaps changed Cleveland's outlook.LeBron James, whose future hangs over this city like a looming thunderstorm, scored 29 points with 11 assists and eight rebounds on 12 of 19 shooting — an ordinary performance by his standards — as the Cavs won their 10th straight over the Raptors with one of their most complete games in months.After all the injuries, the failed Isaiah Thomas experiment, the roster... [More]

CLEVELAND (AP) — Down 3-0 in the series to LeBron James and the Cavaliers, Toronto coach Dwane Casey changed his starting lineup for Game 4.Casey is playing guards Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan on Monday night along with forwards C.J. Miles, rookie OG Anunoby and center Serge Ibaka as the Raptors look to force a Game 5 at home.Miles is making his first start of the Eastern Conference semifinal while Ibaka is back after not starting Game 3. Guard Fred VanVleet is coming off the bench as is center Jonas Valanciunas, who started the first three games.DeRozan sat out the entire fourth quarter of Game 3, and he Raptors played better without one of their All-Stars. Toronto tied the game with eight seconds left before James hit a buzzer-beater for a 105-103 win.DeRozan scored just eight points and shot 3 of 12 in Game 3. He's averaging 18 in the series after scoring 26.7 points per game in the first round against Washington.

CLEVELAND (AP) — After three games, the Toronto Raptors have yet to find the answer.They came close against the Cavaliers in Games 1 and 3 of this Eastern Conference semifinal. If they don't figure things out in Game 4 on Monday night, they will have all summer to ponder the problem."All three games have presented different plays that would have to be done at certain points of the game to get over the hump," swingman C.J. Miles said before the shootaround. "We see them. It's not's like there's no door to get out of the room."But this is no easy escape. No NBA team has rallied from a 3-0 deficit to win a playoff series."The cause of lack of sleep at night when you can replay the game and see so many turning points," Miles said. "It's easy in hindsight to say that play changes everything. You never know. But you always think about the fact that you want to give yourself the best shot every single night and there's some plays that didn't always give us the best shot."Toronto is coming off... [More]

The "Death Lineup" breathed new life into the Golden State Warriors.It was yet another reminder: In the NBA playoffs, where even a brief downward slide can be enough to end a season, even the best teams won't hesitate when they feel a need to shake up their starting lineups.Desperate times in the first round sent Cleveland to desperate lineup measures. Toronto, the team that finished with the NBA's second-best regular season record, sought a spark by changing its starting five against the Cavs for Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. Utah showed Houston a new look Sunday in Game 4 of their West semifinal matchup, and while the Jazz slowed the high-powered Rockets at times they still fell into a 3-1 series deficit.And then there's the Warriors, who were coming off a big loss in Game 3 against New Orleans so they put their five best players — Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala, Kevin Durant and Draymond Green — on the floor Sunday to start a game for the first time all season.... [More]

CLEVELAND (AP) — LeBron James breaks hearts, shatters dreams and delivers joy all in one breath. He carries one city, crushes the other.With mind-blowing ease, James can take over a quarter, a game, a series, a season and make it his own. His terms.After being criticized earlier in his career — it seems laughable now — for not being clutch or taking the big shot, James has become the NBA's pre-eminent closer, the player best equipped to handle pressure and produce excellence when everything is on the line.Crunch time? He's captain crunch. Tom Brady in the two-minute drill. Muhammad Ali in the 15th round. Mariano Rivera in the ninth. The fat lady.It's over when James says so.James added to his growing legacy for breathtaking finishes on Saturday night by banking in a shot high off the backboard at the buzzer to give the Cleveland Cavaliers a 105-103 win in Game 3 of their semifinal series against the Toronto Raptors, who had the closest view of a moment that all but ended their season.Dribbling... [More]

The unthinkable has happened before.Conference semifinals, 2010, Boston vs. Philadelphia: Boston wins the first two games at home, then goes into Philadelphia to capture Game 3 and take a commanding 3-0 series lead.Undeterred, Philadelphia won in seven games to reach the Eastern Conference finals.One small detail to note: That was in hockey.If there's one piece of solace for the Philadelphia 76ers and Toronto Raptors right now, it's likely this — comebacks from 3-0 deficits are not completely unheard of in major sports. There's been four of them in the NHL. Another happened in baseball, the Boston Red Sox rallying to oust the New York Yankees in the 2004 AL Championship Series. And even Cleveland has blown a 3-0 lead, albeit again in hockey, and that was of the minor league variety in 1960.But in the NBA, never.NBA teams staring into the 0-3 abyss have never been saved: 129 have tried, 129 have failed. On Monday, the 76ers and the Raptors — both down 3-0 after down-to-the-wire defeats in... [More]

INDEPENDENCE, Ohio (AP) — A devout student of the game, LeBron James understands that history says the Cavaliers will likely eliminate the Raptors.The Toronto test isn't over."We still got some work to do," he said.By winning Games 1 and 2 of their Eastern Conference semifinal on the road, James and the Cleveland Cavaliers are in position to eliminate the Raptors for the third straight postseason. The Cavs have won eight straight playoff games over top-seeded Toronto heading into Saturday night's Game 3.The Cavs are 15-0 in the playoffs when they've opened a 2-0 lead. James, a three-time champion, has an even more impressive mark — 21-0 when winning the first two games.But while the past points to Cleveland eventually moving into the conference finals against Boston or Philadelphia, James knows better than to rush things."There's no fast-tracking the process where you say, 'OK, let's try to end this thing so we can get some rest,'" he said following the team's morning shootaround. "You... [More]

CLEVELAND (AP) — LeBron James has perfected a signature, soul-crushing shot that also seems to describe what's happening again to the Toronto Raptors.The fadeaway.With cold-blooded precision, James worked the 24-second shot clock down to single digits before sinking one fadeaway after the next in Game 2 on Thursday night, each swish pushing the top-seeded team in the Eastern Conference closer to ending a season that was supposed to conclude differently.Instead, it's a replay: another Raptors extinction is expected.Back from LeBronto, as some have nicknamed Canada's multi-cultural metropolis, James and the Cavaliers — featuring a rejuvenated Kevin Love — will host Game 3 on Saturday night. They look to tighten their stranglehold on a semifinal series that has gotten away from the Raptors.In the East's other semifinal, the Philadelphia Sixers are trusting their process — and that Ben Simmons will shake off a horrible performance in Game 2 — before they fall into their own 3-0 hole against... [More]

CLEVELAND (AP) — LeBron James has perfected a signature, soul-crushing shot that also seems to describe what's happening again to the Toronto Raptors.The fadeaway.With cold-blooded precision, James worked the 24-second shot clock down to single digits before sinking one fadeaway after the next in Game 2 on Thursday night, each swish pushing the top-seeded team in the Eastern Conference closer to ending a season that was supposed to conclude differently.Instead, it's a replay: another Raptors extinction is expected.Back from LeBronto, as some have nicknamed Canada's multi-cultural metropolis, James and the Cavaliers — featuring a rejuvenated Kevin Love — will host Game 3 on Saturday night. They look to tighten their stranglehold on a semifinal series that has gotten away from the Raptors.In the East's other semifinal, the Philadelphia Sixers are trusting their process — and that Ben Simmons will shake off a horrible performance in Game 2 — before they fall into their own 3-0 hole against... [More]

NEW YORK (AP) — On the night LeBron James began the second round of the playoffs, a computerized Cavalier tormented teams the way the real Cleveland superstar does.The NBA is betting there are enough fans for both versions.The league is staging the opening tournament this week of its NBA 2K League , hoping to cash in on the combination of the global popularity of basketball and the burgeoning business of esports.Television ratings have soared in recent years to watch James, the rise of the Warriors, and a thrilling era of high-flying dunkers and long-range snipers. But will fans really race to their computers to watch other people sitting around playing video games?"I think the esports universe is answering that question for us," NBA 2K League managing director Brendan Donohue said. "People are completely, 100 percent engaged with watching others play games. I think Twitch is walking proof of that, and all the success these other games have had. The esports space has doubled in size the... [More]

NEW YORK (AP) — David Fizdale is coming back to coaching as the latest pick of the New York Knicks to turn around their franchise.The Knicks agreed to hire Fizdale on Thursday, a person with knowledge of the details said.The former Memphis Grizzlies coach will replace Jeff Hornacek, who was fired last month after two seasons.The Knicks then conducted a lengthy search before agreeing Thursday to a deal in principle with Fizdale, the person told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the deal was not officially announced.ESPN first reported the agreement with Fizdale.Fizdale led the Grizzlies to the playoffs in his first season before being fired early last season following a clash with star center Marc Gasol.That did little to diminish the respect of Fizdale, who had been an assistant to Erik Spoelstra in Miami when the Heat won two NBA championships and developed strong relationships with superstars LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.The Knicks will hope he will have the same... [More]

TORONTO (AP) — The Toronto Raptors seem to have everything lined up in their favor heading into their postseason matchup against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.They're rested. The Raptors feel they are ready. They have home-court advantage.But they've been confident before heading into a playoff showdown with James and have come up short — twice."Gotta go through the best to get to that trophy," All-Star guard DeMar DeRozan said. "Every step of the way we're going to come across somebody."The Raptors open their second-round playoff series at home to James and the Cavs on Tuesday night. Cleveland has eliminated Toronto in two straight postseasons, including the 2016 conference finals and a second-round sweep last year.This time, however, Toronto is the top-seeded team in the East after a team-record 59-win season. The Raptors have been off since a Game 6 victory over Washington last Friday night finished their first-round series, while James and the Cavs were pushed to the limit... [More]

TORONTO (AP) — TORONTO — The Toronto Raptors seem to have everything lined up in their favor heading into their postseason matchup against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.They're rested. The Raptors feel they are ready. They have home court advantage.But they've been confident before heading into a playoff showdown with James and have come up short — twice."Gotta go through the best to get to that trophy," All-Star guard DeMar DeRozan said. "Every step of the way we're going to come across somebody."The Raptors open their second round playoff series at home to James and the Cavs on Tuesday night. Cleveland has eliminated Toronto in two straight postseasons, including the 2016 conference finals and a second-round sweep last year.This time, however, Toronto is the top-seeded team in the East after a team-record 59-win season. The Raptors have been off since a Game 6 victory over Washington last Friday night finished their first round series, while James and the Cavs were pushed to... [More]

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Indiana Pacers were full of surprises this season.They won more games than expected. They proved more competitive than projected. Heck, they even forced the three-time defending Eastern Conference champs into a decisive seventh game all while receiving the stamp of approval from the world's best player.Not bad for a team that was supposed to be sitting home and plotting draft strategy long ago."This was one of the most amazing seasons of my career," forward Thaddeus Young said. "We played for one another, not as individuals. It's tough (being eliminated), but this is a great group of guys. We all gave our blood and sweat to the game and each other."And it could be just the start.The Pacers' future looks far brighter now than it did 12 months ago after they were swept out of the playoffs by LeBron James and the Cavaliers.Back then, there questions about Paul George's future in Indiana loomed heavily over the franchise. By late June, new general manager Kevin Pritchard... [More]

Capsule for the Cleveland Cavaliers-Toronto Raptors second-round NBA playoff series that starts Tuesday:___EASTERN CONFERENCENo. 1 TORONTO RAPTORS (59-23, 4-2) vs. No. 4 CLEVELAND CAVALIERS (50-32, 4-3)Season series: Cavaliers, 2-1.Story line: For the third straight year, Toronto and Cleveland meet in the playoffs — with the Cavaliers 2-0 so far in these matchups. If the Raptors are going to finally find a way to overcome LeBron James, they'll need to get over some serious mental hurdles. Cleveland is 11-1 in James' last 12 games against Toronto, and he's averaged 30.9 points in those contests. The Raptors, top to bottom, are the better team. But James remains the most unstoppable force in the game and is a matchup nightmare for Toronto.How They Got Here: Toronto beat No. 8 Washington 4-2, and Cleveland beat No. 5 Indiana 4-3.Key Matchup: Toronto's Kyle Lowry vs. Cleveland's George Hill. It would be easier to say James vs. everybody, but the point guard matchup is particularly significant in this series. Hill has been ailing with a bad back, then got put in for some of the second half of the Cavs' Game 7 win over Indiana and immediately changed the game. Lowry must win this matchup, period.Prediction: Raptors in 7.___Compiled by AP Basketball Writer Tim Reynolds___More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/tag/NBAbasketball

CLEVELAND (AP) — LeBron James walked sluggishly down a corridor inside Quicken Loans Arena following Game 7 surrounded by the usual squadron of security personnel, some business associates and his publicist.Each step seemed a challenge. His eyes were heavy. He ached from head to toe. He wanted to lie down.James was moving on to the second round of the NBA playoffs — almost on his hands and knees."I don't think he's appreciated enough for just how much energy he puts into every single game to do what he does," Cavaliers forward Kyle Korver said of James. "It's just unbelievable."Pushed to his physical limits by the Indiana Pacers, and barely helped by Cleveland teammates until they finally showed up when it mattered most Sunday in a 105-101 win, James willed the Cavs into the next round, where they'll face the top-seeded Toronto Raptors for the third straight postseason.If the Indiana series was any indication, James might have to do it again.James scored 45 points — his third game over... [More]