The Cleveland Cavaliers absolutely crushed the Toronto Raptors in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Although it is unclear if the players were drinking/gambling/partying, it’s apparent that they weren’t too concerned with their franchise’s most important game of all time.
Advertisement
Game 6 is Friday night in Toronto.
Cavaliers: The 38-point win ties the fifth largest in the conference finals.
The Cleveland Cavaliers forward waved to the crowd to grow louder and capped a brilliant first half by zipping a two-handed, overhead pass halfway down the court to LeBron James for a dunk. For Kevin Love it will be a chance to exorcise demons of his own, most notably his 13 point combined output in games one and two.
Game 6 will be played on Friday at Toronto in the Air Canada Center.
Heading into the fourth quarter, the Cavaliers led 100-60.
After struggling badly in Games 3 and 4, Kevin Love was incredible in Game 5. His teammates told him the same thing. “We don’t care if you 0-for-25”.
Love didn’t play in the fourth quarter of Games 3 and 4 in Toronto because Lue chose to go with Frye, and it was a storyline. “As much as I got it, I was trying to look for him for either post-ups or threes”.
Toronto was overmatched from the opening tap in Game 5, falling behind by 18 after one quarter, 31 at halftime and finishing with 18 turnovers, five by Lowry. Cleveland young gun Kyrie Irving added 23 points.
Toronto didn’t surpass the Cleveland Big Three’s total of 71 points until the game’s last few minutes – and all three Cavs stars sat the entire fourth quarter.
LeBron James was familiar with this situation. He can draw from a myriad of experience coming from his time spent the Miami Heat. They were a combined 7-of-20 from the field. But now they’re two wins away from the National Basketball Association finals after evening their best-of-seven conference finals against Cleveland at 2-2 on Monday. “I didn’t know that”, he said.
James then gave Cleveland a fleeting one-point advantage before the lead changed hands several times in a frenzied finale. DeRozan was 2-of-8 and Lowry was 5-of-12 for the game. “We didn’t have a rhythm all game”. Defensively, the Cavaliers yield 98.3 points against the opposing teams.
DeRozan had 14 points and Lowry 13 points.
With the three point shooting records that the Cavaliers broke in the series against the Atlanta Hawks, the team showcased their offense to its full potent.
“They kicked our butts”, said Raptors coach Dwane Casey. “Here at home, we came out early, we had in our minds to be aggressive, to be physical, and to jump on those guys early and we were able to do it”. That’s the bottom line. “That’s the ballgame. That’s been all three games”. The Raptors need to continue playing defense like this in order to win Game 5. “The series is not over”.
Advertisement
After losing Game 1 and 2, the Raptors are back in Cleveland, hoping to win and to take care of the series when they return to Toronto for Game 6.
