"If we had LeBron on our team, too, we woulda won" - How DeMar DeRozan summed up 'LeBronto' era in one quote

Kyrie Irving stood hunched over with his hands on his knees as he watched his teammate iso'd on the top of the key—he could sense what was coming. Bringing the ball between his legs multiple times, LeBron James sized up Toronto's P.J. Tucker and then stepped back to release a three-pointer. The ball clanked off the back rim and dropped in to extend Cleveland's lead to 11 with under three minutes to play.

Already on the heels of being swept, the Raptors knew their season was over as James delivered the coup de grace . Finishing with 35 points on the night, it was another day in the office for No. 23.

"If we had LeBron on our team, we would've won, too," said Raptors star DeMar DeRozan after Game 4 . "[...] It happened. We got swept. It's gonna be one of them long summers for us."

The prequel to Toronto's torture

James strung together one of the dandiest stat lines of his career in the four-game sweep of DeRozan's Raptors. He averaged 36.0 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 5.3 assists. typical playoff-LeBron numbers.

But then you glance down the stat sheet and check his 57% shooting overall, 48% from the 3-point line—and for the staunchest No. 23 naysayers out there—23-25 from the free-throw line in the latter two games of the series.

"When LeBron is shooting the 3-ball [like] he is, at the rate he's shooting it, at the average he's shooting it, they're difficult," Raptors coach Dwane Casey said . "They present so many problems offensively."

After losing to the Cavs in six games a year earlier, Toronto felt that they were close to dethroning "The Chosen One." So in the offseason, they traded for the defensive-minded Tucker and signed two-way contributor Serge Ibaka to beef up their frontline against LeBron's unrelenting basket attacks.

It turns out that the additions didn't move the needle, as the Cavaliers superstar got to the rim whenever he wanted.

"They're a well-oiled machine, playing on all cylinders right now," Casey added . "Any time you have No. 23, you can flip every switch you want to. ... He is the difference. They did flip a switch. They are a totally different team defensively and definitely offensively."

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LeBronto was born

One year later, the same feelings in Toronto, another tough summer, and this time—even more uncertainty. On May 7, 2018, Canada's team was swept out of the NBA playoffs exactly one year after they were swept on their home court.

As bad as 2017 was for them, 2018 looked and felt a few touches worse. Why? Two words: Game 2. One name: LeBron. And his barrage of fallaways that looked like he was playing H.O.R.S.E by himself in his backyard.

Wait, that wasn't even the worst part. Did someone say Game 3?

"After [Games 1 and 3], I thought we were emotionally drunk," Casey said after his team was swept again. "It just took the wind out of our sails."

Forgive the article, Raptors fans—we know it's a jagged memory. But for the series, James was James—and then some. In Game 4, he dropped 29 points, eight rebounds, and 11 assists in what was his ho-hum performance of the series.

Overall, No. 23 slit the Raptors with averages of 34.0 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 11.3 assists. Those numbers are whoppers, but then you realize he shot 55.9% overall and was a +55 for the series.

Just when he convinced us he couldn't do better after a wicked Game 2 performance—43 points, and 14 assists on 67.9% shooting—the superstar forward diced any hope Canada had for its team in Game 3 when he banked a floater off the glass as the buzzer sounded.

"You're looking at probably one of the guys that's going to go down as one of the greatest ever, and it's a matchup nightmare for anybody," the Raptors head coach later added . "We've seen it with Michael [Jordan], we've seen it with Kobe [Bryant], we've seen it with a lot of great players ... for whatever reason, we got the unlucky draw every year, going against him."

Luckily for the Raptors, James decided to take his talents to the Western Conference in 2018. The very next season, Kawhi Leonard led them to an NBA championship.

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