James, Kyrie and Love push Cavs to a win away from NBA Finals after routing Raptors
The Cleveland Cavaliers regained the lead in their NBA Eastern Conference final series with a 116-78 demolition of the Toronto Raptors in game five.
Cleveland opened the play-off matchup with consecutive wins but the Cavaliers were handed a wakeup call following back-to-back defeats to the Raptors, having threatened to sweep their way into the NBA Finals.
But normal service resumed via the 38-point humiliation in Cleveland on Wednesday as the Cavaliers took a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series, moving to within a game of the NBA Finals for a second successive season ahead of Friday’s trip to Toronto.
The Cavs outscored the Raptors 37-19 in the first quarter and the east’s top seed never looked back, leading 65-34 at half-time.
Cleveland’s big three came up big as LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love all had 20 points or more.
We #TheLand. pic.twitter.com/WLAkZYzyxz
— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) May 26, 2016
James posted 23 points, eight assists and six rebounds, Iriving also registered 23 points, while Love led the Cavs with a game-high 25 points and such was the trio’s dominance, they were able to sit out the final period.
Hoop. harm. +35 point lead. #ALLin216 pic.twitter.com/9jClV7nGv3
— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) May 26, 2016
While James, Irving and Love all performed, Toronto’s All-Star duo failed to deliver.
Kyle Lowry was five-of-12 from the floor for 13 points and DeMar DeRozan was two-of-eight in his 14-point haul on the road.
