The Cleveland Cavaliers pummeled the Toronto Raptors 116-78 to take a three-games-to-two lead in the Eastern Conference Finals and move within one win of trip back to the championship round.
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As the Raptors protected their home court with consecutive wins to knot the Eastern Conference Finals at two games apiece, Love’s struggles took center stage for a suddenly struggling Cleveland team.
Cleveland, who shot 57 per cent from the field, have outscored the Raptors by 88 points in their three home games. And it says a lot about the Cavs’ collective defensive intensity that Smith was arguably the Cavs’ most active player on that end of the court Wednesday.
But to truly make that claim, they’ll have to carry their impressive play from the three games in Cleveland to Toronto for Game 6 on Friday.
“They are a different team here”, Toronto head coach Dwane Casey said.
Lowry had 13 points and six assists, but the Cavs’ defense was markedly better than it was in Game 4, when Toronto’s starting backcourt combined for 67 points. Cleveland piled on 28 more in the second quarter to carry a 31-point advantage into the second half. Kevin Love got hot early going 4-4 with 9 points which gave the Cavaliers an 8 point lead in which the Raptors were not able to recover from.
The Raptors lost the first two games of the series, but mounted an impressive to win Games 3 and 4 in Toronto to tie the series at 2-2. They now play a do-or-die Game 6 back in Canada on Friday night.
On the other side of the fence, Kyle Lowry only managed 13 points on 5-12 shooting.
The Cavs made a point of getting Love the ball right away and he responded by making all four first-quarter field goal attempts. Valanciunas played 18 minutes and added nine points, but his contributions did little to allay the Raptors’ woes.
The Raptors knew going into the series that they would have to win at least one game in Cleveland in order to advance to their first-ever NBA Finals, but visiting Quicken Loans Arena has turned out to be a recurring nightmare so far.
We saw Jonas Valanaciunas for the first time in 18 days.
The Cavs credited Love with setting the tone early.
Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) dunks during the third quarter. Since their expansion arrival in 1993, the Raptors had never been down by 30 points before in any game regular or postseason at halftime but they have rarely seen a defense like this either.
Even after the Game 4 loss evened the series, James said he “just didn’t believe” his team was in anything like the “really adverse situations” he had experienced in previous postseasons. “It’s big for us”. “Our communication, everything had to be a lot sharper, and we took a lot that we had to learn from that game, including myself”.
DeMarre Carroll (l.) and the Raptors get blown out in Game 5 vs. the Cavs.
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“He basically just told me that no one’s immune to the National Basketball Association playoffs”, Love said of his pep talk from Frye. He finished with 10 rebounds, while Biyombo only had four. “It’s … understanding that our guys knew what we did and didn’t accomplish in Toronto”, James said. “There may be a time when I may have to have one of those big games, but until then, just relax”.
