Back home, the Cavaliers were not hospitable. The Cavs dominated the Raptors in the paint 46-32, forced 18 turnovers, and outscored them 21-14 on the fast-break.
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DeMarre Carroll and Cory Joseph were spotted at the Jack Casino near the Quicken Loans Arena at 2:00 AM on the eve of Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals. And after knocking down a 3-pointer – he made his first six shots – to give Cleveland a 27-16 lead, he summoned Cavs fans to bring the noise.
Cleveland opened the play-off matchup with consecutive wins but the Cavaliers were handed a wakeup call following back-to-back defeats to the Raptors, having threatened to sweep their way into the NBA Finals.
Cleveland’s big three came up big as LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love all had 20 points or more. “We’ll be much better”. They clicked at both ends in Game 5, handing the Raptors a beating that could linger into the offseason.
After games, when players sit down for their postgame press conferences, they also have sheets with the stats from the game, and they often glance over them while reporters toss questions at them. “That’s been all three ballgames”.
James had 23 points, eight assists and six rebounds and Kyrie Irving had 23 points.
Indicative of the drastic change from the team’s play in Toronto was Love’s first-half performance in which he scored 19 points and showed no signs of the injury he suffered on Monday night.
“They are a different team here”, Casey said.
“More than anything, I just wanted to respond”, he said, “just wanted to help us win in any way that I could”.
“We’ve got to play the same way we played the two home games we’ve had so far”, Raptors guard Kyle Lowry said Thursday, a day after he was hounded by Cleveland’s guards and scored just 13 on 5 of 12 shooting.
The Cavaliers will try and clinch the series on Friday night when the two teams head back to Toronto for a game set to tip off just after 8:30 p.m. ET.
If there were any positive takeaways from Game 5 for Toronto, it was the return of Jonas Valanciunas, who hadn’t played since early in the Raptors’ semifinal series against the Heat.
Jones and the Cleveland Cavaliers were leading the Toronto Raptors by 41 points at the time, so it’s not like there was a whole lot of basketball for Mike Breen, Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson to discuss. And it’s been a common problem in these playoffs, where going into Thursday night there’s been as many games decided by 25 points or more as there have been decided by five points or less – 17 each. He was 4-of-4 overall and finished with nine points but was mostly inconsequential as the Cavs already essentially run away with it. The series now shifts back to Toronto for a potentially series-deciding Game 6 on Friday.
A courtside doctor might have stopped this one in the first half.
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Cavs coach Tyronn Lue had blamed the two losses in Toronto on poor shooting, and his team proved him right.
