5-25-16 vs Raptors

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Wrap-Up -- The Cavaliers and Raptors battled all season long attempting to lock up the top seed – and homecourt advantage – in the East. And five games into the Conference Finals, the importance of that accomplishment has become abundantly clear.

The Cavaliers continued the trend that’s shaped the series – throttling the Raptors, 116-78, in Game 5 to take a 3-2 lead heading back to Toronto on Friday night.

If the Wine and Gold can do something they haven’t done all season – come out of the Air Canada Centre with a win – they’ll wrap up the Eastern Conference and make their second straight trip to the NBA Finals. Lose, and it’s back to The Q for Game 7 on Sunday night.

After a pair of frustrating losses north of the border in Games 3 and 4, the Cavaliers – led by their Big Three – came out ready to rumble on Wednesday night, blowing the game open in the first quarter and cruising from there.

In just three quarters of work, Cleveland’s power troika of LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love nearly outscored the point total Toronto posted in four – combining for 71 points in the win.

On the defensive end, the Cavs handled Toronto’s dynamic backcourt duo of DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry – who combined for 67 points in Game 4 – to just 27 points on 7-for-20 shooting in Game 5.

Wednesday’s contest featured six lead changes – all in the first three-and-a-half minutes of the game. After Tristan Thompson threw down a two-handed jam to give Cleveland a one-point lead at the 8:32 mark of the first, the Cavs spent the rest of the quarter running downhill – closing the period on a 17-3 run and putting the Raptors in a bind the rest of the way.

Kevin Love came into Game 5 desperately trying to shake out of a funk that saw him combine for just 13 points on 5-for-23 shooting in the two contests in Toronto. He did exactly that – leading both squads with 25 points, going 8-of-10 from the floor, 3-of-4 from beyond the arc and 6-of-6 from the stripe.

Love – who added two boards, two assists, two blocks and a steal on Wednesday – sat out the fourth quarter in each of the previous two games in Toronto. He did so again in Game 5, but this time he was joined by the rest of Cleveland’s starting five as the Cavs’ reserves nursed a lead that reached 43 points in the final period.

“(Love)’s confidence never wavered,” praised Coach Tyronn Lue. “He knew exactly what he had to do. We talked about it, and then today, this morning we talked about it also. And after the game he's like: ‘I told you.’”

LeBron James topped the 20-point plateau for the 23rd consecutive Playoff game – netting 23 points on 10-for-17 shooting, adding a game-high eight assists, six boards, a pair of steals and a blocked shot.

Kyrie Irving has notched at least 20 points in 11 of Cleveland’s 13 postseason contests – scoring 11 of his 23 points in the first quarter and going 9-of-17 from the floor overall, pitching in with three boards, three helpers, three steals and a block.

The Cavaliers were at their best on both ends in Wednesday’s win.

Offensively, they shot 57 percent from the floor – their best mark since shooting 59 percent against the Celtics in 2010 – topping the century mark for the 11th occasion in the postseason; shooting better than 50 percent for the fourth time.

On the defensive end, the Cavaliers held Toronto to a 2016 Playoff-low 78 points on 39 percent shooting, including a postseason-low 18 percent from long-distance and restricting them to just 34 first-half points.

“We just wanted to play physical,” said J.R. Smith – who finished with a seven points, six boards and a game-high four steals. “We got great stops and pushed it. We got easy buckets in transition and (Kevin Love) was able to get it going. Whenever he plays the way he did tonight, it’s tough for teams to beat us.”

Once again, Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye came up big off the bench.

Jefferson led all reserves with 11 points and six boards. Frye – who’s shooting 62 percent from the floor in the series – went 3-of-4 for seven points, three boards and a blocked shot in Game 5.

Aside from keeping the Raptors’ dynamic backcourt duo in check, the Cavs also put a lid on Bismack Biyombo – who combined for 40 boards in Toronto over the weekend but finished with seven points and three rebounds on Wednesday.

Most of that credit goes to Tristan Thompson, who bounced back from a rough couple nights in his hometown to lead everyone with 10 boards – five off the offensive glass – and nine points in his return to The Q.

The Cavaliers returned to the formula that was so successful in the first two wins of the ECF – outscoring Toronto in the paint, 46-32, on second chance opportunities, 18-11, and on the break, 21-14.

Cleveland dominated Toronto on the boards, 48-21, and after attempting a combined 82 three-pointers over the weekend, hoisted just 21 shots from deep in Game 5.

Turning Point -- The game went south for the North in rapid-fire fashion on Wednesday night. After a back-and-forth start to the contest, the Cavaliers simply blew past the Raptors over the final four minutes of the first quarter.

J.R. Smith’s first triple of the night gave Cleveland an eight-point edge and that keyed an avalanche led by Kyrie Irving – who scored 11 points in just under three minutes as the Cavs upped their lead to 18 points by the end of one.

The Wine and Gold didn’t give an inch in the second quarter, closing the first half on a 14-4 run to take the 65-34 edge and essentially put the game on ice before intermission – posting the largest halftime lead in Conference Finals history.

By the Numbers – 27.5 … average margin of victory for the Wine and Gold over Toronto in four games – regular and postseason – at The Q.  In the 2016 Playoffs, the Cavs are 7-0 at home – topping opponents by an average of 20.9 points per. Their 38-point win was the largest in Cavaliers postseason history (surpassing the 31-point drubbing they handed Toronto in Game 1 on May 17).

Quotable – Coach Tyronn Lue, on whether he wanted to take a page out of Dwane Casey’s book and complain about the Cavaliers’ lack of free throws in the second half of Game 4 …

”I kind of laugh at it when I hear from you guys, when I do my media availability, people saying ‘take over the game.’ My presence on the floor is much bigger than what numbers talk about. When you have a young superstar like this guy (Kyrie) and you have Kevin, who's a superstar as well – and they've helped us get to this point. So you don't just throw in the kitchen sink because we lose two games or we didn't play as well as we could. There may be a time when I may have to have one of those big games, but until then, just relax.”

Up Next – After crushing the Raptors in Game 5 at The Q, the Cavaliers can wrap up the Eastern Conference on Friday night in Toronto – trying to get their first (and biggest) win at the Air Canada Centre this season. If they’re unable to do so, the series shifts back to Cleveland for Game 7 on Sunday night at The Q.

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Cavs Crush Raptors, One Win Away from East Crown

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Listen to Radio Play-by-Play announcers Rafa "El Alcalde" and John Michael's Calls of the Game during the Cavs matchup against the Toronto Raptors at Quicken Loans Arena on May 25, 2016.

Kevin Love gets the steal and then hits his third three of the half to give the Cavaliers a 65-31 lead over the Toronto Raptors late in the 2nd quarter.

Jugada del Partido ECF Game 5 vs. Toronto

Escucha a la voz en español de los Cavaliers Rafa "El Alcalde" con la narración de la jugada del partido entre Los Cavaliers de Cleveland y Los Raptors de Toronto en El Quicken Loans Arena de Cleveland, OH el 25 de Mayo del 2016. Los Cavs aplastaron a Los Raptors 116 -78 para tomar ventaja de 3-2 en la serie de Finales de La Conferencia del Este. Kevin Love reapareció para Los Cavs después de dos actuaciones malas en Toronto y lideró a Los Cavs con 25 puntos. Su segundo triple de la noche puso a Los Cavs arriba en el marcador por 11 y Los Cavs dominaron el resto del partido.

Q. How do you explain the Jekyll and Hydeness of this series, both teams winning on their homecourt, and Tristan [Thompson] and Kevin [Love] tonight bouncing back after terrible games in Toronto?

A: "I just think in Toronto they attacked us. I thought they were the aggressor, and we were the reactors. They attacked us early, and it was hard for us to bounce back. Getting down 18 points in Game 4 was tough for us, fighting back. But I thought here at home, we just came out early. We had in our own minds to be aggressive, to be physical, to jump on those guys early, and we were able to do it."

Q. LeBron, obviously the point total and the differential is going to be a big story line, but how refreshing is it to have a lot of those first-quarter points come off of defense?

A: "We understood that coming back from Game 3 and Game 4 we just didn't play our defense the right way. We didn't play how we should have played, and they took advantage of every moment. We had to get back to our staple. We had to get back to what we wanted to do defensively in order for us to play a complete game. That was the most satisfying thing, the way we defended, holding these guys to 39 percent shooting."

Q. Kyrie, all three of the Big Three scored over 20, but defensively tonight you guys did a great job holding down [DeMar] DeRozan and [Kyle] Lowry. What changed defensively with the guards holding them to only 27 after they scored over 60 last game?

A: "Just taking the personal challenge. We talked about it after the game. Just making it a little bit more uncomfortable for them coming out. They were coming off the pick-and-rolls, attacking our bigs downhill, so we kind of made a change on that. It made our jobs a little bit easier on the ball to get into the ball because of our backside help. We had more than four sets of eyes on them, just like they were doing to me and LeBron on the other end. We just wanted to counteract that and just play more physical and make other guys make decisions other than those two. We obviously know they lead their team, and in Toronto they did a great job both Game 3 and 4 of doing that. Game 5 on our home floor we just wanted to be a little bit more physical, make them uncomfortable."

(On any differences in this game compared to the games in Toronto): “I think it was everybody locking in at home. We let the games get away from us in Toronto, but they played well there. We are going to have a tough fight on our hands going back to their place. We have to do our best to try and close it out like we did tonight.”

(On tonight’s performance): “We just wanted to play physical. We figured that if we started the game off physical then the refs would have to call it that way. We did a great job with that. We got great stops and pushed it. We got easy buckets in transition and “Kev” (Kevin Love) was able to get it going. Whenever he plays the way he did tonight, it is tough for teams to beat us. Overall it was a great team effort.”

Cavaliers Forward/Center Tristan Thompson

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Sounds of Game 5: Cavaliers vs. Raptors - May 25, 2016

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Game 5 Postgame: J.R. Smith - May 25, 2016

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Game 5 Postgame: LeBron James, Kyrie Irving - May 25, 2016

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Game 5 Postgame: Channing Frye - May 25, 2016

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Game 5 Postgame: Kevin Love - May 25, 2016

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Game 5 Postgame: Tristan Thompson - May 25, 2016

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Game 5 Postgame: Coach Lue - May 25, 2016

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5‑25‑16 vs Raptors