In the past two games, Love has scored a total of 13 points on 5 of 23 shooting, including just 3 of 11 from three-point range.
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Cleveland opened up a 31-point lead at halftime, a record for biggest halftime lead in conference finals history.
That man is, of course, Biyombo, who pulled down more rebounds in one game (26) than Kevin Love has in the entire series. Following a timeout, the Cavs made five of their next six to cut the deficit but the Raptors led 27-24 after one quarter. Now the Cavs are hitting 33.3 percent of their three-point shots it’s causing all sorts of offensive problems, starting with fewer offensive rebounds.
The Cavaliers delivered a stunning blow on Wednesday by flipping the script on the Raptors, who won back-to-back home games to level the series 2-2. Before the Toronto series Smith was shooting almost 51% from 3, but after four games against the Raptors is only shooting 35%.
Now they head back into the inhospitable Quicken Loans Arena with the daunting task of stealing a game on the road. He went in with 29 points, nine rebounds, and six assists in Game 4, and has scored at least 20 in 22 consecutive games.
The Cavaliers had plenty of time to analyze what went wrong for them in their 105-99 loss on Monday night.
Out west, Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder have been grappling with Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson of the Golden State Warriors in a Conference Finals series fraught with drama.
It is my personal belief that whoever wins Game 5 of this series will ultimately be the team that moves on to the NBA Finals. That changed in Games 3 and 4, and the Raptors were able to do both – limit Cleveland’s interior and three-point scoring.
Kyrie Irving and the Cavaliers must take care of business at home after dropping two straight to the Raptors. The Cavs started 10-0 in these playoffs, but have now lost two straight, and they are now 10-2, and the King may have reason to worry.
With the series now a best of three and all the confidence with the Raptors, the Cavaliers will need a strong bounce back performance from their star players today. Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan exploded for 67 combined points that surprised the Cavaliers defense. Love averages 16.4 points and 10.0 rebounds per game. They launched 29.6 per game (35.2 percent of all field goal attempts) and converted them at 36.2 percent, the seventh-best mark in the National Basketball Association. Love struggled in the past two games and the Cavs suffered losses. And teams such as the Raptors play much better at home than, say, the Pistons and Hawks do.
“I definitely thought we had finally got over the curve of how we want to play here in this building”, James said.
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“Just a sense of calmness”, James, speaking after the Cavs’ shootaround Wednesday morning, said of his mindset in preparation for Game 5. To play LeBron that many minutes also highlights how ineffective some of his teammates were.
