CLEVELAND (AP) – LeBron James considered swigging a beer while scoring 35 points, Kyrie Irving added 24 and the Cleveland Cavaliers picked up where they left off following a long layoff and throttled the Toronto Raptors 116-105 on Monday night in the opener of their Eastern Conference semifinal.
The Cavs hadn’t played since April 23, when they completed a four-game sweep of Indiana. But the defending champions didn’t show signs of rust and were well-prepared to face the revenge-seeking Raptors, who lost to Cleveland in last year’s conference finals.
Toronto dropped to 1-12 in playoff openers.
Game 2 is Wednesday night.
“As a team I think we had great energy, and even some of the mistakes that we had we were able to cover up for because our energy level was high,” James said. “But we’ll be a lot better on Wednesday.”