Cavaliers break the Raptors with Game 2 blowout: 3 takeaways

After a heartbreaking loss in Game 1, the Raptors fell apart in the second half of Game 2. The Cavaliers now hold a commanding 2-0 series lead heading home.

We don’t often enter Game 2 of a series and consider it an absolute must-win scenario for a 59-win one-seed. Given Toronto’s tortured history facing the Cleveland Cavaliers in the playoffs however, this game had that feel from the jump. Cleveland has taken on the role of playoff bogeyman for Toronto over the past two years, and Quicken Loans Arena has become the Raptors very own house of horrors. They haven’t won a single a playoff game in Cleveland. Not one!! Going into LeBron’s house down 0-2 would most likely be an insurmountable deficit.

Well so much for the desperation. Cleveland obliterated Toronto 128-110 behind an avalanche of points in the second half! Toronto is down 0-2 after LeBron and a rejuvenated Kevin Love took turns sledgehammering the hearts of the Raptors into smithereens. LeBron posted a comical 43 points, 8 rebounds and 14 assists, unleashing a torrent of impossible mid-range fadeaways in the second half.  Love added 31 points and 11 rebounds of his own, finally breaking out of an extended shooting slump. Here we go again… cue every extinct dinosaur meme you can find, because this one was a demolition job.

The Raptors got off to a promising start, attacking the Cavaliers early in the shot clock and creating a ton of good looks in transition. Lowry was sizzling, DeRozan was slicing his way to the rim, and Cleveland wasn’t getting open looks from 3-point range. So far so good!  Toronto jumped out to an eight point lead in the second as Lowry continued his hot shooting; he went 6-of-7 from the field and poured in 18 points in the first half. But much as they did in Game 1, the Cavs closed the gap at the end of the second quarter. Kevin Love really got going, fooling Valanciunas on cuts and taking advantage of mismatches in the post. He also had 18 at halftime.

Then the floodgates opened in the second half. The Cavs erupted for 37 points hitting everything in sight. LeBron and Love played a masterful two man game, feeding off of each other and leading Cleveland’s absurd 16-of-22 shooting performance in the quarter. Toronto’s easy looks in the paint evaporated and the turnovers piled up. As Lowry got into foul trouble and Coach Casey failed to properly adjust, Cleveland got out to a huge lead.

And then in the fourth, the divine tidal wave of fadeaways began.  In one of the most preposterous shooting displays of his career, LeBron attempted eight fading jumpers and hit six of them. There isn’t much else to say. When LeBron hits six of these in your face, run and hide because there is no hope for anyone.

I guess well have to ask Drake if this was God’s Plan all along:

Takeaways

Coach Casey melted down in the second half.  Dwane Casey was a leading candidate for Coach of the Year this season, and deservedly so. The Raptors won 59 freaking games and put together their best regular season in franchise history! But his second half performance was a full on coaching disaster from start to finish. After Kyle Lowry quickly picked up his fourth foul at the start of the third quarter, the game went off the rails. Cleveland got out to an 11-point lead after numerous boneheaded turnovers from Toronto. Casey yanked Ibaka (who was playing atrociously), Anunoby and Valanciunas early in the third. VanVleet, Siakam and C.J. Miles replaced them.

And then the Cavs went wild, generating tasty looks on almost every possession. Worse still for Toronto, Cleveland wasn’t running any particularly imaginative schemes! They ruthlessly took advantage of the mismatches on the floor, as Love posted C.J. Miles on what seemed like 100 straight possessions. Love killed Miles, scoring over him and dishing out an awesome assist to LeBron as well. And the Raptors never adjusted they let the Cavs run that action over and over.

Meanwhile, James feasted on Siakam, relentlessly driving at him and finishing easy layups. After two games, it’s obvious that Siakam simply isn’t quick enough or strong enough to hang with the King. OG Anunoby inexplicably sat on the bench for most of quarter. In a game where LeBron scored 43 points and went 19-of-28, Toronto’s best option to defend him only played 23 minutes!!! That’s unthinkable, especially because he only had three fouls.

The lead soon ballooned to 14, even as LeBron hit the bench. Coach Casey’s  adjustments didn’t work. But all was not lost at the start of the fourth. The lead was back down to 11, but again Anunoby was nowhere in sight!  James roasted everyone that Toronto threw at him during his crazy shooting display and the game was lost. Toronto absolutely has to match OG’s minutes with LeBron’s moving forward. Maybe you can’t expect such a youngster to play huge minutes, but he has to play more than 23 for the Raptors to have any chance moving forward.

Cleveland has its mojo back on offense. In their seven-game slug fest against the Pacers, the Cavaliers offense curiously fell off a cliff. The ball wasn’t moving and LeBron’s post-ups weren’t unstoppable. Only Kyle Korver could hit from deep and Kevin Love couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat. After bouncing back nicely in Game 1 against the Raptors, the Cavs offense was en fuego in Game 2.

Cleveland got great looks early by attacking DeMar DeRozan in pick-and-roll and posting Kevin Love on smaller guys. When he started hitting from deep in the second, the impact on Cleveland’s offense was palpable. Jonas had to come out further and guard him. On one occasion, Jonas ventured out to the 3-point line and bit on a Love pump fake, which created a wide open LeBron James jam. Cleveland also ran some nice Love-Hill screens and love befuddled Jonas with some well-timed cuts. This game was an offensive masterclass from the Cavs. They finished the game shooting 59.5 percent from the field. Toronto couldn’t defend this team in 2016 or 2017, and the trend seems to be continuing in 2018.

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Toronto had success attacking early in the shot clock, until the second half. This series might already be over; it certainly seems that way. But Toronto was producing damn well against Cleveland early in the game. The Raptors shot 60 percent in the first half! Lowry and DeRozan set the tone for Toronto early in game. They were as aggressive as we’ve ever seen them against the Cavs.  Lowry brilliantly ran pick-and-rolls with Valanciunas, sprinting by George Hill for rim runs and dumping off to Jonas for easy buckets. DeRozan was equally effective scoring in the mid-range. Both of Toronto’s dynamic backcourt duo got to the line early, which they hadn’t really done in Game 1.

In the second half Cleveland did a great job of stymieing these kinds of looks. Toronto never really got going after a bunch of careless turnovers. They started the quarter totally discombobulated and they never got back into the offense that earned them an eight point lead in the first half. Because the Cavaliers were making literally everything on offense, the Raptors couldn’t push the tempo nearly as much as they did in the first half. That feedback loop was disastrous. As Cleveland caught fire, Toronto got sloppier and the offense ground to a halt. In Game 3 the Raptors need to replicate their offensive strategy, but they can’t fall apart at the other end!