Cleveland Cavaliers Reaffirm Statement By Destroying Raptors In Game 1

With a 31-point win in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, the Cleveland Cavaliers reaffirmed their statement to the rest of the NBA

At the end of the regular season, both the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Toronto Raptors were separated only by one game in the conference standings. In Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals, that gap didn’t matter.

The rested Cavs of LeBron James and company began the defense of their Eastern Conference championship by dismantling the Toronto Raptors via a 115-84 victory at Quicken Loans Arena.

The Raptors, coming off a Game 7 victory against the Miami Heat in the Conference Semifinals, were visibly the underdogs in this series as this is the first time in franchise history that they have reached the Conference Finals.

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While the Raptors were able to hang around early on, trailing only by five points after the first quarter which saw Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan play the entire first 12 minutes. From that point on, the Cavs never looked back.

A pair of threes early in the second pushed the lead to 11 points and from there, the lead never got lower than 12 the rest of the way.

LeBron James made 11 of his 13 shot attempts, good for his 24 points in 28 minutes of action. Kyrie irving led the way this time around with his 27 points and 5 assists. Kevin Love also fairly contributed to the offense, scoring 14 points on 4 of 8 shooting which includes 2 of 4 from the three-point line.

But more than the dominating performance of the Big 3, Coach Tyronn Lue got contributions from almost everyone in his roster who played in Game 1. The only ones who failed to score were James Jones and Dahantay Jones.

The Raptors on the other hand got 8 points from Lowry on 4 of 14 shooting. DeRozan wasn’t far away, finishing with 18 points on 9 of 17 shooting. The duo went on to combine for 0 of 8 from the three-point line.

And that alone explained the reason why the Cavs were able to pull away easily. Despite the mere fact that the Raptors were able to hold the Cavs’ three-point shooting to just 7 out of 20, Toronto forgot something else.

Both LeBron and Irving are the Cavs’ top penetrators and they took advantage of the fact the defense was focusing on the shooters. That’s how flexible this Cavs team is. They don’t force things to happen. And, Cleveland did more than just scoring. They outmuscled, outrebounded the Raptors 45-23, 10-4 on the offensive.

If Game 1 was an indication of what the Raptors will endure in Game 2 and beyond, they will certainly need big adjustments. DeRozan and Lowry must shoot better. If anything, they will be lucky to win a game in this series because the Cavs are well-rested but they can grind it out in the scenario this series goes to a Game 7.

But if you are a Cleveland team who is hungry for a title, would you allow this series to take longer when you can finish it in 4 games? And, if you are Dwane Casey who just said that this series isn’t over by any means, you need to make your wards realize something: if you don’t shoot better, you’d lose.

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If you don’t go for the rebounds, you’d lose. If you don’t defend, you’d definitely lose. And in case they haven’t realized just yet, they are playing against last year’s runner-up, the Cleveland Cavaliers. If Toronto doesn’t improve in Game 2, there is a possibility that Cleveland will advance to the Finals, earlier than expected.