On Thursday, April 3, ahead of Game 2 in Toronto, the Cleveland Cavaliers visited some of the team’s smallest and most deserving fans: patients at Cleveland Clinic Children’s. The goal: to give them and their families everything they would need to cheer on the Wine and Gold during the playoffs.
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TORONTO -- This was Kevin Love's best game in the 2018 playoffs, and the only player capable of outshining him Thursday was LeBron James.
The Cavs' two All-Stars were way, way too much for the Toronto Raptors in Game 2 of this Eastern Conference semifinal, accounting for 74 points in Cleveland's 128-110 win.
The Cavs have a commanding 2-0 lead in this series with the next two games slated for The Q. The Cavs have won eight straight playoff games over the Raptors dating to the 2016 conference finals. Toronto is in danger of getting swept out of the conference semis by James and Co. for the second straight season.
"These two games are over," James said. "How we can get our minds right for Game 3. It's one game at a time, and that's the only way we should look at it. We will not put our guards down. I won't, so that's going to trickle down to everybody else."
James, as previously mentioned, went off in Game 2. He recovered from his 12-of-30 effort in Game 1 to go for 43 points, eight rebounds, and tied a career playoff high with 14 assists. He shot 19-of-28 in 40 minutes, and scored 27 points after halftime.
James passed Elgin Baylor for eighth all time with his 104th playoff double double. This was his 23rd playoff game with at least 40 points and his fourth so far this postseason.
Love, meanwhile, gave the Cavs 31 points and 11 boards on 11-of-21 shooting. He entered play shooting .323 and averaging just 10.9 points during the playoffs, and upset because coach Tyronn Lue wouldn't take him off of Jonas Valanciunas.
Well, forget the bruising Toronto 7-footer. Time and again the Raptors switched smaller players onto Love and he devastated them.
"We had watched film (Wednesday) that just showed that when we were running certain actions, they switch the guards on to him so we were having Kyle, when he sets that screen, pops back to get out and then we were able to take advantage of mismatches early," Lue said. "In the second half, they went small and we were able to post Kevin against CJ (Miles) and (DeMar) DeRozan a few times.
"Kevin made a couple of shots early, the same ones he's been getting. He was able to knock some down early tonight. That opened up the floor for LeBron."
JR Smith added 15 points, Jeff Green scored 14 off the bench and George Hill contributed 13 points.
The Raptors received 24 points from DeRozan and 21 from Kyle Lowry, who mustered just three in the second half. Valanciunas was good again in his own right, following up the 21 points and 21 boards he had in Game 1 with 16 points and 12 rebounds.
Toronto was the No. 1 team in the East during the regular season and was the only team in the NBA ranked in the top five in offense and defense.
But the Raptors don't have LeBron. And they've lost four straight to Cleveland now, counting the regular season.
"Going into this series we knew that we had to be good," Lue said. "With Kyle Lowry and DeRozan and Dwane Casey has done a great job this year of changing the offense, being way better defensively, we knew it was going to be a tough matchup for us."
The Cavs (yes, the Cavs) erupted in the third quarter to turn this game in their favor. They opened with runs of 8-0 and 18-5 in the first four minutes. James dialed up 15 points in the period and Cleveland turned what was a two-point halftime deficit into what was at one-time a 15-point lead.
A couple bad shots at the end of the period allowed the Raptors to get a little closer at 98-87 heading into the fourth. Cleveland entered Game 2 having been outscored by 26 in third quarters this postseason. The Cavs shot 73 percent in the third on Thursday.
James closed out the game with 12 points in the fourth -- all on jumpers.
Love took nine shots in the first quarter. He only made four, but for him, in these playoffs, it counts as an excellent start. He scored seven points for all of Game 1.
By halftime, Love was up to 7-of-14 shooting for 18 points.
"I made some shots. I mean, as simple as that," Love said. "I know it's funny to say, but I've had a lot of great looks and really uncharacteristic misses for me. It's not like I forgot how to play the game of basketball."
James had 16 in the first half and the Cavs trailed 63-61. He drained a jumper with .7 seconds to go, but missed two foul shots on the possession before that could've mean a halftime tie.
Toronto was 7-of-14 on 3s in the first half, with three from Lowry (18 points), and shot .595 overall (25-of-42). The Cavs were 3-of-12 from deep.
The Raptors should've been ahead by more. It was a harbinger of very, very bad things to come for them.
Game 3 is at 8:30 p.m. Saturday at The Q.
TORONTO, Ontario -- The beautiful sounds of silence.
At one point, that's what you heard at Toronto's Air Canada Centre, one of the NBA's loudest arenas.
Then came the sound of fans standing, shrugging and trudging to the exits.
Final score: Cavaliers 128, Raptors 110.
And that cracking you hear?
It's the sound of hearts aching, dreams breaking for the Raptors after they lost the first two games of this best-of-seven series on their court.
This was the eighth consecutive playoff victory for the Cavs against Toronto, a streak that dates to 2016.
This series is not over. A lot of things still can happen as the series shifts to Cleveland for Games 3-4.
But it's not just Toronto being haunted by playoff ghosts past. It's the Cavs turning into a playoff-tested team right in front of our eyes. It's a team remembering it has been to the NBA Finals in the past three years.
Surviving the grueling, seven-game series against Indiana in the first round gave the Cavs a sense of toughness and purpose.
It's as if they screamed in Game 2 at Toronto: HEY, WE'RE STILL DEFENDING EASTERN CONFERENCE CHAMPS!
A LOT OF LOVE
Then came Love.
That's Kevin Love.
This was Cavs coach Tyronn Lue's dream game, with Love in the middle of it.
Lue dug out several plays designed to put the ball in the hands of Love. It was as if Lue wanted to make a point about how Love could be effective at center against Toronto.
Forget effective -- he was dominating, finishing with 31 points and 11 rebounds.
By the end of the first quarter, Love had his 2018 playoff average of 10 points. By halftime, he had 18 points next to his name.
More importantly, the plays required Love to move. To cut to the basket, to run a curl around a pick. To play some basic motion basketball.
Love missed his first three shots, all open. Regardless, the Cavs kept working the ball to him. Often, LeBron James had the ball and kept waiting for Love to make his move to the rim.
It was beautiful basketball to watch.
And get this: The Cavaliers committed just three turnovers all night. That's right, 25 assists compared to three turnovers!
THEN THERE WAS GREATNESS
James channeled his Magic Johnson personality, making sure his teammates received the ball in the best place at the best time.
*Find J.R. Smith (15 points) open for 3-pointers. Swish...swish...swish.
*Encourage George Hill (13 points) to go to the rim, and the veteran guard doing just that.
*Help Jeff Green (14 points) feel good about himself at both ends of the court.
And how about this? Each of those three shot 5-of-8 from the field.
It all was there:
The ball movement...
The player movement...
The court spacing...
The confidence.
James wanted to make sure Toronto had no hope. He scored just two points and took two shots early, as he was orchestrating the other players.
In the second half, James took over. He turned from Magic to Michael, as in Johnson to Jordan. James scored 15 in the third quarter. He made outrageous fall-away jumpers, he drove to the rim at will.
Give him 43 points total. Add 14 assists, eight rebounds and only one turnover.
Give him the award for toying with Toronto, inspiring his teammates, then making sure this game was under control well before the fourth quarter.
It was a special night from a few special players who could turn the Cavs into a special team.
Behind a brilliant performance from LeBron James, the Cavs took a commanding 2-0 series lead with a 128-110 win over the Raptors on Thursday night.
James was in complete control in Game 2, scoring 43 points, dishing out 14 assists and grabbing eight rebounds. Not to be forgotten, Kevin Love stole the show in the first half, finishing with 31 points and 11 rebounds after a sluggish start to the playoffs.
As the Raptors now head to Cleveland down two games, here are three takeaways from Game 2...
Oh, hey Kevin Love!
James has been carrying much of the offensive load this postseason, but Love reminded everyone just how dangerous the Cavs can look when both of Cleveland's All-Stars are firing on all cylinders.
Love shot 11-of-21 from the field, plus a perfect 7-of-7 on free throws, but it was his willingness to get physical in the paint that really set the tone.
It was just Love's night. If he's going to produce at this level, the Cavs will still be a tough out in the East.
Cavs flip third-quarter script
The Cavs have consistently struggled in third quarters (remember that first-round series?), but Thursday night, they did a complete 180.
After trailing 63-61 at halftime, they came out of the locker room on a tear, opening the period with an 8-0 run. Kyle Lowry, who had been fantastic in the first half (18 points), picked up his fourth foul in that span.
Raptors coach Dwane Casey needed a timeout just two minutes into the quarter, but the Raptors never got back on track.
The Cavs shot a scorching 16-of-22 from the field and piled on 37 points in the period.
Every possession counts
The Cavs turned the ball over three times.
Not three times in a quarter. Not three times in a half. Three times total.
They refused to give up any easy buckets in Game 2 and took advantage of the Raptors' mistakes. They scored 13 points off 11 Raptors turnovers.
The Raptors have to do a better job with their on-ball defense. Cleveland felt no pressure with the ball, and James routinely found cutters streaking down the lane for layups and dunks.
