Game Recap from NBA.com.
Conventional wisdom says that the Cavaliers have to drop a game at some point during the postseason. It’s just that the way their Big Three – and just about everyone else in the rotation – is playing right now, it’s hard to see when that moment will actually come.
The Cavaliers went right back to their formula from Game 1 – beating up Toronto on the glass and in the paint, keeping their explosive All-Star point guard in check and using a big second-quarter push to hand the Raptors the 108-89 loss in Game 2 at The Q.
The Big Three of LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love continued their prolific postseason – combining for 68 points, 20 boards and 17 assists -- with all three netting double-digit scoring by intermission.
The first half of Game 2 featured four ties and 11 lead-changes, and things got chippy early – with Kyrie Irving and Bismack Biyombo locking horns midway through the first quarter, each picking up techs as the officials attempted to cool things off.
Things did come under control and after a contentious first quarter, it was all Wine and Gold in the second.
Patrick Patterson’s triple tied the score at 46-apiece with just over four minutes to play in the first half, but that’s as good as it’d get for the Raptors the rest of the way. Cleveland closed the period on a 16-2 run to take a two-touchdown lead at half – and didn’t allow Toronto to get within single-digits the rest of the way.
As he has in four of the Cavaliers’ previous five Playoff games, Kyrie led the squad in scoring – pacing both squads with 26 points, going 12-for-22 from the floor to go with four boards, three assists and a steal.
LeBron rewrote the NBA history books again on Thursday night – surpassing Shaquille O’Neal for fourth on the NBA’s all-time Playoff scoring list while notching the 15th postseason triple-double of his illustrious career, finishing with 23 points, 11 boards and 11 assists.
The four-time MVP – who trails only Magic Johnson (30) in career postseason triple-doubles – went 7-for-13 from the floor and 9-for-17 from the stripe in the victory and is now 18-for-26 through the first two games. He also posted his 20th straight game of at least 20 points, the longest active streak in the Association.
Kevin Love added 19 points, five boards, three helpers and a blocked shot in Game 2 – going 5-of-8 from the floor and 8-of-9 from the line. The three-time All-Star has yet to lose a Playoff game in a Cavaliers uniform.
“It's something that's been well-documented,” said Love, who’s now 14-0 in his brief postseason career. “But as (LeBron) said after last game, we're not here to just win nine games, now it being 10. We want to take it to the top, so that's not necessarily something that we're thinking about.”
Overall, the Cavaliers made seven more free throws than the Raptors attempted, going 25-for-37 from the stripe compared to 14-of-18 for Dwane Casey’s club.
J.R. Smith rounded out the Cavaliers starters in double-figures with 12 points, going 4-of-7 from the floor, 3-of-5 from long-distance. Cleveland’s bench wasn’t as effective as it was in Game 1, but Channing Frye kept his postseason roll going – finishing with 10 points and three boards in the win.
DeMar DeRozan led the Raptors in scoring once again, finishing with 22 points on 8-for-18 shooting. But his backcourt mate struggled once again, going 4-for-14 from the field, including 1-of-8 from deep, for just 10 points. Through the first two games of the Eastern Conference Finals, the two-time All-Star is shooting 29 percent from the floor (8-of-28), just under seven percent (1-for-15) from long-distance.
“That's where we want to make our mark – on the defensive end – and once we settled into tonight's game, it just made it a lot easier on ourselves getting out in transition. We didn't necessarily get up a lot of threes in transition, but we stayed in the paint.”
The Cavaliers won the battle of the boards (46-38), dominated in the paint (50-28) and handed out 24 assists to Toronto’s 17. Cleveland shot an even 50 percent from the floor while holding the Raptors to 40 percent shooting and below 90 points for the second straight contest.
For the second straight game, the Cavaliers also scaled back on their long-range shooting – attempting just 21 triples and hitting seven, the exact numbers from their lopsided Game 1 victory on Tuesday night.
No comments:
Post a Comment