LeBron reminds Raptors, rest of East whose world they're living in

A handful of East hopefuls have risen up during LeBron James' unfathomable run of Eastern Conference dominance over the last seven years, only to be flicked aside with relative ease.

Whether the Raptors completely fall off after their latest playoff loss to James' Cavaliers depends largely on what transpires this summer, when four of Toronto's eight most used postseason players hit unrestricted free agency (headlined by All-NBA point guard Kyle Lowry). For now, like the Hawks, Pacers, Bulls, and countless others before them, the Raptors are faced with the sobering reality that second best might be as good as it gets with James around.

The Raptors loaded up for another run at LeBron's Cavs by making deadline-week moves for Serge Ibaka and P.J. Tucker, accumulating more talent and defensive versatility than at any other point in franchise history. It resulted in a second-round sweep in which Cleveland outscored Toronto by 61 points over the course of four games (with Lowry missing the final two due to an ankle injury), and by an almost unprecedented 102 points from 3-point territory.

At the fulcrum of it all, as always, was James, who at 32 is as dangerous as ever, thanks to a supporting cast of 3-point marksmen and an uptick in his own long-range accuracy.

Through eight unblemished playoff games, James is averaging 34.4 points, nine rebounds, 7.1 assists, 2.1 steals, and 1.5 blocks on an effective field-goal percentage of 62.3 - buoyed by a 46.8 percent conversion rate from deep.

"When LeBron is shooting the 3-ball at the rate he is, I'm not saying (the Cavs) are impossible, but they're very difficult to beat," Raptors head coach Dwane Casey said after his team's Game 4 loss. "The floor is so spread. They bring in (Channing) Frye and (Kyle) Korver and the floor is spread so much, and now there goes Kyrie Irving driving down the lane. They present so many problems offensively, you've got to score 117, 118 points a night to beat them, because they have so many weapons."

Case in point, Casey didn't even mention four-time All-Star Kevin Love, or former All-Star Deron Williams, who's shooting better than 45 percent from deep since joining the Cavs in March.

"It starts with (LeBron), the way he can spread the floor," Casey said. "He's a point (forward), and he's one of the best that's ever played at that position."

The degree to which James can demoralize East opponents was on full display against the Raptors. He casually feigned sipping a beer during a Game 1 beatdown, spun the ball a couple of times before stepping back for a made triple over Serge Ibaka in Game 2, and then "son'd" Norman Powell in Game 3, just hours after Powell declared the Raptors would be tougher on James going forward.

It's not just that LeBron wins. It's that he does so in a way that leaves losers questioning their very existence and relevance in the Eastern Conference landscape.

Related - Lowry: 'They've got LeBron and nobody's closing the gap'

A 32-year-old with 50,000 NBA minutes worth of mileage - who's missed more than eight games in a season just once in 14 years - should be slowing down as his own window of contention narrows. Instead, James ages as gracefully as the vintage wines he sips while watching the windows of various East opponents open and shut before him.

"By far, of any player I've ever been in proximity to, he's the most diligent in regards to maintenance, strengthening, and just treating his body," longtime teammate James Jones told theScore after Game 4, expressing confidence in LeBron’s continued durability.

"He gets his rest, but he's the first one in the gym everyday and a lot of times he's the last one to leave. He's regimented with it. You couple that with his extreme athleticism and freak attributes, and you get the greatest player to ever play the game."

Rest over rust

Much of the rest Jones referenced has come during LeBron's many deep playoff runs, when his teams have often made quick work of the opposition in early rounds and afforded themselves recovery time. If you ask LeBron, that rest, and the postseason schedule in general, have been more responsible for his teams' April-June resurgences than any flipping of a proverbial "switch."

"We got more practice time in the playoffs than we did the whole month of March, because of injuries, and because we were on the road so much," James said Sunday. "It's benefited our team a lot."

And so a familiar script is about to play out. One of Boston or Washington will enter the East finals with one or two days off, depending on whether it takes six or seven games to decide their second-round duel. The Cavs, meanwhile, will have seven-to-nine days off, thanks in large part to James' continued dominance through Cleveland's first eight postseason games.

The Celtics or Wizards will enter with confidence - a genuine belief that they're the East team finally up for the challenge. In the end, they'll likely leave with the same questions and air of inevitability that Toronto and so many others have faced following May meetings with LeBron. The Eastern Conference is his world - 14 other teams are just living in it.