LeBron James passes up Kareem, Kobe as Cavs rout Raptors…again

LeBron James just led the Cleveland Cavaliers to another blowout win over the Toronto Raptors?

The Cleveland Cavaliers have kicked their games into another gear. They just decimated the Toronto Raptors for four straight quarters on the way to a 125-103 blowout win in which LeBron James checked out with six minutes remaining in the final period.

James, who finished the game with 39 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assist, 3 steals and 2 blocks was as dominant and efficient as ever and has continued to keep his turnovers down.

You can check out the full highlights below:

In Game 2, James shot 10-14 from the field (71.4 percent), 4-6 from three-point range (66.7 percent) and 15-21 from the free-throw line (71.4 percent).

On offense, he dashed into the paint on drive time after time, drawing contact if he didn’t get the basket. He was a beast in transition, largely due to he and the rest of the team’s aggressive defense leading to turnovers and fast break opportunities, and was clearly feeling his outside shot.

Despite his low assist total, relative to his skills as a point-forward, he made a number of sensational passes. With James you always have to look at the benefit of his skip passes and those that generate “hockey assists” (a term that refers to a pass that leads to an assist). Besides, Kyrie Irving was setting the tone as a floor general anyways, spraying the ball around the perimeter and inside the arc. He finished the game with a playoff-high 11 assists.

He also had two steals and contributed to James’ transition opportunities.

The all-around game displayed by Irving since the All-Star break has been promising. Regardless of his assist numbers, it’s the sheer fact that Irving actively tries to get his teammates involved all game that’s promising.

In this game, Irving got off to a slow start with his shot although he finished the game with 22 points. However, he never failed to keep the rest of the offense in rhythm with his ball-movement.

Despite the Toronto Raptors changing their starting lineup, inserting Patrick Patterson at power forward as Serge Ibaka played center in place of Jonas Valanciunas, the Cleveland Cavaliers broke the game open in the first half. As James, J.R. Smith and Channing Frye bombarded the Raptors with threes, Kyrie Irving helped the Cavs set a pace and get in a rhythm. In general though, the Cavs were whipping the ball around and getting ball movement.

The Cleveland Cavaliers also kept DeMar Derozan without a field goal through the horn with an aggressive, blitzing defense but also solid man-to-man and off-ball defense as well.

It didn’t hurt that LeBron had 20 points before the end of the half either.

In the second half, with the game virtually out of reach, James made history with this bucket. With this shot, his second straight three-point field goal, James passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for 2nd all-time on the playoff scoring list.

Abdul-Jabbar, nicknamed “The Dream”, is widely considered to be the best center in NBA history and is the NBA’s all-time leader in regular season points. Abdul-Jabbar won six NBA championships, all with the Los Angeles Lakers, and played in 196 playoff games. He retired at 41 years old after 18 seasons in the NBA.

James, a three-time NBA champion, has played in 204 playoff games. He’s 32 years old and in his 14th NBA season.

In the third quarter, while Irving and James put on a show and scored 36 of the Cleveland Cavaliers 37 points in the period, James also passed Kobe Bryant for sole possession of 2nd-place in 30-point playoff performances.

He finished the game by hitting another milestone, becoming just the fourth player in NBA history to make 300 three-pointers in the playoffs. He joins Ray Allen, Reggie Miller and Manu Ginobli as the only player with that distinction.

While the Toronto Raptors showed a lot of fight and effort, and kept hitting timely shots, they simply didn’t have enough to last “Peak LeBron” and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

When Kyle Lowry left the game, out with a back injury he sustained in the third quarter, it was over. Lowry had scored 20 points on 7-12 shooting from the field and even came back after initially injuring his back and kept getting buckets.

That was about the same time Irving started heating up though.

In the fourth quarter it was largely garbage time and fans got to watch Deron Williams, a former All-Star, play with an energized Shumpert, who made a couple of nice off-the-dribble jumpers late in the game. Shumpert finished the game with 18 points.

For the series, King James is now averaging 37.0 points, 8.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 2.0 steals and 1.5 blocks per game. He’s only averaging 3.0 turnovers per game this series after averaging 4.1 turnovers per game in the regular season and 4.5 turnovers per game in the first round of the playoffs.

After watching LeBron fly around on offense and defense, wreaking havoc everywhere he went on the court, I have one takeaway from the game — the Toronto Raptors don’t seem to have a chance in this series with the way James is playing.

Can anyone stop this version of

The Chosen One?

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What did you think of the Cleveland Cavaliers win over the Toronto Raptors in Game 2? What did you think of LeBron James and Kyrie Irving’s milestone accomplishments? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section or Twitter @KJG_NBA.

*All stats referenced from www.basketball reference.com