Cleveland Cavaliers Dominate Toronto Raptors In Game 5

The Cleveland Cavaliers defeat the Toronto Raptors 116-78. They are now one win away from going back to the NBA Finals.

Now that’s more like it.

That’s the Cleveland Cavaliers team fans have seen since the beginning of the playoffs.

Not only was Cleveland’s 116-78 obliteration of the Toronto Raptors in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals another statement win, but it answered the “can the Cavaliers bounce back from adversity” question.

Wednesday night  proved that they can. The win Wednesday night gives them their biggest margin of victory in a playoff game in franchise history.

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From beginning to end, the Cavaliers dominated the Raptors in every aspect of the game. After a forgetful Game 4,

immediately set the tempo with a quick mid-range shot that went in. He finished the first quarter with 12 points.

He easily had the best game of the series after only totaling 13 points in Games 3 and 4. Love finished with 25 points and only two rebounds.

Although Love struggled in Toronto, Tristan Thompson performed even worse in his hometown. Bismack Biyombo was doing all of the things that fans are accustomed to seeing Thompson do. He was a terror on the offensive boards, scored off of putbacks and set the tone defensively.

It was a completely different result in Game 5. Thompson came out more aggressive and didn’t allow Biyombo to outwork him on the boards. He finished with 10 rebounds, while Biyombo only had four. Biyombo had 40 rebounds combined in his two previous games.

The Raptors tried to go with Jonas Valanciunas–and he looked like he didn’t miss any games, but the Cavaliers were just too sharp all night for him to make any significant difference.

Unlike the last two games, the Cavaliers limited the Raptors’ scores off turnovers and they were more aggressive in penetrating to the basket which led to more fouls being assessed to Toronto.

The group rebounding wasn’t there from the Raptors, and they struggled to get any second-chance points.

They are truly a Jekyll and Hyde team playing away from the Air Canada Centre.

Defensively, the Cavaliers got back to their identity, which was to close out on the perimeter and prevent any kind of inside passes. The biggest thing the Cavaliers did was not allow Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan to beat them.

They went 7-for-20 combined after going 28-for-43 in Game 4.

The first adjustment that I saw was the defensive approach on DeRozan. Instead of J.R. Smith, Iman Shumpert and LeBron James playing him under the screens, they played him over them and he had a tough time with his shot and penetrating to the hole.

They also double-teamed Lowry and finally gave Kyrie Irving help from having to guard him one-on-one. Those two adjustments forced the “others” on the Raptors to try and score … and it worked for Cleveland.

While everything was going right for the Cavaliers, there was just one thing that bothered me, and that is the production of Smith.

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He’s only had two solid games all series. However, in Game 4–and Wednesday night in Game 5, he’s scored 13 points combined.

He has also been atrocious from three-point range going 4-for-14 from there.

Smith has to shoot more consistently with the NBA Finals potentially in the future for the team.

It was a fun game for Cavaliers fans, but a miserable one for Raptors fans.

They will have one more chance on Friday to extend the series to seven games, but after the determination and will Cleveland played with Wednesday night, I believe they will close out the series and rest up for the Finals which begin on June 2.

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There is potential for a letdown, but the Cavaliers proved they can overcome struggles and get back on track.