Full Court Press: Cleveland takes a commanding 2-0 lead against Toronto

Welcome to the daily Full Court Press playoff edition, where we recap all of the day’s NBA action. Check back every night if you missed any NBA action and come back tomorrow for more NBA playoff fun.

May 3, 2018

Cleveland Cavaliers vs Toronto Raptors

Three days ago, the Cleveland Cavaliers were a vulnerable team that the Toronto Raptors were finally ready to match-up against.  That thought process has all but disintegrated as Toronto suffered a crushing defeat losing 128-110.  The culprit of this defeat was Lebron James.  He certainly made amends for his rather pedestrian play 2 nights ago by scoring 43 points, 14 assists, and 8 rebounds.

Lebron James wasn’t the only Cavs player feeling his shot as Kevin Love also chipped in with 31 points.  J.R. Smith scored 15 points, Jeff Green had 14 and George Hill 13 as the Cavaliers won their eighth consecutive postseason victory against the Raptors

But the Raptors did themselves no favors in a decisive game loss.  The Raptors simply stopped fighting.  Serge Ibaka, a key defensive player who could have offset Love’s efforts finished with 12 minutes, six rebounds, one assist and was 0-for-5 from the field.

Defensively, the Raptors’ rotations were poor in the first half and even more horrendous in the second half.  The Cavs shot just under 60% for the game hardly a justifiable percentage for an opposing team playing on the road.

The negatives definitely don’t outweigh the positives with Toronto heading to Cleveland where they’ve had little success in recent years.

It wasn’t all negatives for the Raptors, however.  DeMar DeRozan scored 24 points (although he needed 24 shots to get there).  Kyle Lowry had 21 and Jonas Valanciunas added 16 points and 12 rebounds.

But for the 2nd half on the Raptors looked thoroughly outclassed.  Things won’t get any easier as this series shifts to Cleveland.  The Raptors have gone 0-5 there the past 2 postseasons.

Science repeated itself again tonight.  An asteroid did make the baby raptors go extinct. Who knew that asteroid was named the Cleveland Cavaliers.