The Cleveland Cavaliers' "Big 3," which is composed of LeBron James, Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving, showed commanding form to take Game 5 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals. Each scored more than 20 points to pound the Toronto Raptors 116-78 and takes the lead in the series 3-2.
Dominant on both ends of the floor
The Cleveland Cavaliers never looked back after taking the lead with 8:33 remaining in the first quarter. The Cavs were shooting at a high percentage clip of 57.1% and limited the Raptors' All-Star duo of Kyle Lowry and Demar DeRozan to just 27 points combined. A far cry from their monstrous performance in Game 4 at Toronto of 67 points.
"We want to come out with the mind-set and the understanding of how important this game is to both teams and have a sense of urgency from the beginning," James said following Cleveland's morning shoot around. And the Cavs went out of the gates with urgency! They outscored the Raptors 37-19 in the first quarter. In fact, Cleveland's 65-34 halftime lead was the largest margin in conference finals history.
Game 5 also had a great addition for Toronto's end. Center Jonas Valanciunas was reactivated coming out from injury, but his contributions on the game was minimal. Although he scored nine points on 4-of-4 shooting in 18 minutes, the Lithuanian failed to grab a single rebound. It's also an indication of the rebound disparity between the two teams, Toronto was out-rebounded, 48-27 the whole game.
Kevin Love's resurgence
It seems that Kevin Love is more comfortable playing at "The Q." On the first two games of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals, Love scored 33 points in total at home. However, when the defending conference champs went north to the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, everything went south for the 3 time All-star.
In Game 5 of the series, Kevin Love bounced back with 25 points, two rebounds, two assists, one steal and two blocks while shooting 8-of-10 from the field, 3-of-4 from beyond the arc and 6-of-6 from the free-throw line. A complete 360 from his dismal showing in the past 2 games.
Do you think the Toronto Raptors can win Game 6 at home? What are your predictions for the rest of the NBA Post-Season? Share to us your thoughts in the comment section below.
