2017 NBA Playoffs roundup, Day 18: The impact of Tony Parker’s injury, Cavaliers coasting and Rockets are fine

On Day 18 of 2017 NBA Playoffs Roundup, the Cavaliers don’t respect a Raptors team running out of options, Tony Parker goes down and the Rockets are still just fine.

The conference semifinals of the 2017 NBA Playoffs are in full swing, with every series but one featuring an early 2-0 lead.

Wednesday night, the Cleveland Cavaliers protected their home-court with another dominant win over the Toronto Raptors, signaling once again they have little concern over this supposed challenger.

Meanwhile, the San Antonio Spurs were able to bounce back with a Game 2 win over the Houston Rockets, but lost Tony Parker for the season in the process.

As we advance deeper into the postseason, we’ll be taking a look at what stands out from each night of playoff action. Here’s a look at the Cavaliers’ blatant disrespect, the Raptors running out of adjustments, how TP’s injury impacts the Spurs and why the Rockets are just fine.

The blatant disrespect

In Game 1, LeBron James dropped 35 points, faked a sip of beer and led his Cleveland Cavaliers to an 11-point rout over Toronto that was nowhere near as close as the final score indicated.

In Game 2, the blatant disrespect continued, with the King pouring in 39 points on 10-of-14 shooting, playing pop-a-shot in front of Serge Ibaka and largely coasting to a 22-point victory over the Raptors.

The Cavs do not view their opponent as a legitimate threat, and to be perfectly honest, Toronto has given them zero reason to do so.

https://twitter.com/NBAonTNT/status/859923873956937728

Despite the Raptors’ changes to the starting lineup, the Cavs put together their third 10-0 run of the series in the first quarter to jump out to another early lead. They started a perfect 8-for-8 from downtown, wound up leading by the exact same halftime score as Game 1 and limited DeMar DeRozan to an appalling five-point, 2-for-11 performance in the process.

Cleveland’s defense was an issue in the first round, but so far in the postseason, Playoff LeBron has been more than enough to make up for it. Through six playoff games, King James is averaging a gargantuan 34.2 points, 9.2 rebounds, 7.3 assists, 2.7 steals and 1.8 blocks per game, all while shooting 56.6 percent from the field and 48.4 percent from downtown.

He has it in his mind that this Raptors team is inferior, and they’ve shown nothing to make him consider changing it.

Last year’s Eastern Conference Finals matchup between these two teams changed when the series shifted back to Toronto, with the Raptors winning the next two games to tie it up.

But with Kyle Lowry just being “meh” and DeRozan bordering on “Mother of God” territory (and not in a good way), this series feels very different. The jury’s still out on whether the Cavs have actually joined LeBron in “flipping the switch,” but to be perfectly honest, they don’t need to in order to win this series.