East Conf. Semis: Cleveland Cavaliers 113-112 Toronto Raptors [OT] - 5 Talking Points

The Toronto Raptors lost their homecourt advantage in their very first game despite heading into the Conference Semifinals with a rest advantage over the aging Cleveland Cavaliers. While they played reasonably well for 3 quarters of the game, their all-too-familiar demons during the 4th quarter took hold of them, and in the last 17 minutes of play, they were only able to score 25 points.

The Cavaliers match up much better on offense against the Raptors than they did against the Indiana Pacers, and the difference showed in the play of their entire roster. 5 players for Cleveland scored in double digits, with their veterans Jeff Green, JR Smith and Kyle Korver coming up big for them at important junctures.

LeBron James notched his 21st playoff triple-double - something he is wont to do given the kind of form he has been in this entire 2017-18 campaign. DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry stuffed the stat sheet, but ultimately wilted in the face of the challenge offered by the Cavs and gave away a morale-sapping W to them.

The following are 5 important talking points from the game:

#5 The Raptors' pace proved too much for the Cavaliers in the first quarter

Ibaka shoots over Love in the first quarter

The Raptors set the tone early on in the game. They used their extra-paced offense to create a sizeable separation in the first quarter, going to the bench leading by 14 points, 33-19, at the end of the period.

The Cavaliers focused on getting touches to all of their players, which is part of the reason why they were held to only 19 points in the quarter. During the first quarter, LeBron attempted only 5 shots, while the rest of the team took 20 shots and made only 5 of them.

The Raptors, meanwhile, were picking the Cavs apart in the pick-and-roll. They switched Kevin Love onto the ballhandler with encouraging results, as Love had to take the bench with over 6 minutes left in the first. Tristan Thompson's induction stemmed the bleeding a little, but the Raptors then heated up from 3-point territory to close the quarter out strongly.

#4 Cavaliers' role players led a comeback in the 2nd quarter

#32 Jeff Green

The likes of Jordan Clarkson, JR Smith, Kyle Korver and George Hill were big components of the Cavaliers' impressive fightback during the 2nd quarter. The Cavs won the quarter quite handily - by a margin of 38-27, and this was made possible by their role players who stepped up in a manner hitherto unseen in the playoffs.

The quarter didn't start off in that fashion, though. The Raptors' bench mob held on to the lead from the first quarter for over 5 minutes of the quarter, as the Cavs called a timeout with the score at 44-32 in favor of the Raps. Clarkson was given free reign to move into iso mode, and he got a couple of buckets, but there wasn't much more that the Cavs were able to do as a team.

At this point, LeBron came back into the game, and he helped to steady the ship with a couple of vintage plays from the low post. Kyle Korver got hot right then, as he nailed 2 rhythm 3-pointers. JR got into the act as well, making a couple of threes of his own. By the end of the quarter, their scores stood at 60-57, and the game was well and truly balanced at that point.

#3 Jonas Valanciunas ate off Kevin Love's lunch money in the 3rd

Cleveland Cavaliers v Toronto Raptors - Game One

JV was a dominant force on the interior for much of the game, though his effectiveness slumped at the end of the game in terms of scoring the ball. Valanciunas finished 7-of-19 from the field, which is a misleading figure given how much of an influence he had on the game in totality.

His dominance on the interior allowed him to hold Kevin Love to just 1 made field goal through the duration of the first half. On the other end, he piled up the agony on the Cavs particularly during the 3rd quarter, when they were fielding a small-ball lineup without Love, Thompson or Larry Nance, who sat the game out.

Valanciunas' final stat line of 21 points, 21 rebounds, 2 assists and a block is, overall, a fair representation of how much he exerted his physical dominance over the Cavs' frontcourt - especially Kevin Love, who finished with just 7 points. Love did have a team-leading 13 rebounds, but it was overall a singularly bad night on both ends of the floor for the perennial All-Star.

#2 The disparity in turnovers, shots taken and 3-pointers

Cleveland Cavaliers v Toronto Raptors - Game One

The Raptors were quite wasteful on the night, as they turned the ball over 13 times - including a botched play in the 4th quarter that perfectly summed up their woes during clutch games. By contrast, the Cavaliers had just 5 all through the game. They were zealous in their approach to their offense, and for the most part, they took credible shots.

While the box score does show that the Raptors had more offensive rebounds (15 as compared to the Cavs' 13), these figures have been bloated by a couple of incredibly weak sequences from Valanciunas, who missed multiple putbacks off those rebounds. In totality, the Cavs attempted 102 shots, while the Raptors managed only 93.

Much of the Cavs' comeback win can be credited to their superior 3-point shooting. On the night, the Cavs shot 14-of-35 from beyond the arc on a 40% clip, while the Raptors only shot 9-of-28 for a 32.8% figure from the same range. The 15-point difference here could essentially have been swung in the Raptors' favor if they'd attempted better shots.

#1 Both teams had trouble executing their offense late in the game

LeBron missed 4 consecutive shots in the overtime period

The Cavs went into the 4th quarter trailing by 5 points. With some clutch plays by LeBron and a bunch of made 3-pointers, they managed to close the gap to 105-105 with 30.9 seconds left on the clock. At that point, the Raptors had failed to score a single field goal since 4:20 left on the game clock and the score at 102-99 in their favour.

Kyle Lowry was unusually wasteful with the ball, and he called a particularly terrible timeout on a play right after a timeout called by DeRozan - the play began with 2:48 left on the clock, and Lowry's timeout came at 2:27. They compounded their woes by committing a 5-second violation on the inbounds play for their 13th turnover of the game (the Cavs had just 5 at that point).

The Cavs did win the game, but they were pretty much as wasteful as their opponents. In the overtime period, they took a 111-107 lead early on, with JR Smith and Kyle Korver converting a 3-pointer each. Post that, however, they had just one made field goal, which was a putback layup by Tristan Thompson - who looks back to his best form right now.

LeBron James missed a potential game-winner with 0.6 seconds left in regulation, and he also missed 4 other shots in the overtime period which could have put the game to bed. He finished 12-of-30 from the field for his most inefficient showing in the postseason - including a torrid 1-of-8 from the 3-point line, and 1-of-6 from the charity stripe.