Stop me if you have heard this before: LeBron James has led his team throughout the playoffs. He is causing Toronto to change how they defend and that is causing the rest of the Cavaliers to play with more efficiency as well. Cleveland won both games in Toronto and headed back to 'The Land' looking to go up 3-0 in the best-of-seven series and did just that with a buzzer-beating floater off the glass and now they look to the sweep in the Eastern Conference Semifinals on Monday night in front of their home crowd. Cleveland needs to keep playing this way if they hope James will stay next season.

Cleveland ended up winning the game 105-103.

Cleveland All-Stars vs Toronto All-Stars

The X-Factor of the series to me was Kevin Love and he stepped up this series after a lackluster first series against the Indianapolis Pacers. LeBron James had a chance to rest on the bench for stretches because of the play by Love. The Raptors had no answer on either side of the ball, but things got chippy with 7:15 remaining in the fourth quarter when Kyle Lowry and James got tangled up and Lowry pulled away, which caused James to fall. DeRozan wasn't a factor throughout the game and really hindered the Raptors' comeback in the fourth quarter having their best player on the bench due to a shooting slump.

LeBron James had 38 points, including his game-winner and Kevin Love finished with 21 points and 16 rebounds.

Love also became the fourth Cavalier player in history to record multiple 20-point, 15-rebounds in the postseason (James, Larry Nance Sr., Brad Daughtery). The dependability of Love in the past two games just makes Cleveland more confident down the stretch with back-to-back good games offensively.

Toronto changes their starting lineup

Toronto has had the fourth-best bench production in the NBA during the season and were thought to potentially be the difference in this series. With the quickness of LeBron James, they needed to make a change to keep up with him. Heading into Game 3, head coach Dwane Casey decided to insert second-year Fred VanVleet in and send Serge Ibaka to the bench for more speed in the lineup.

Ibaka, who has been known for his defensive prowess, had failed to record a block in the first two games of the series. Ibaka made sure to return to form from the bench immediately with four blocks in the game and moved into the top 10 of career playoff blocks by surpassing Ben Wallace.

Game 4 preview

No team in NBA history has come back from a 3-0 series deficit. In order for Toronto to force a Game 5, they will need both Lowry and DeRozan to heat up like Lowry did in the second half. The change in the lineup was a step in the right direction but DeRozan didn't play a single second in the fourth quarter while the team was coming back and making it a game. They can't expect JR Smith to not score like he did in Game 3 and need to find an answer for Kevin Love.

I predict this series is over on Monday and the Cavaliers will begin preparing for their Conference Finals matchup against the Boston Celtics, who are up 3-0 on the Philadelphia 76ers. Get the brooms ready in Cleveland.
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