East Conf. Semis, Game 2: Cleveland Cavaliers 128-110 Toronto Raptors - 5 Talking Points

#2 The Cavaliers' strategy of force-feeding Kevin Love paid huge dividends

Kevin Love driving on CJ Miles

Kevin Love had been having the worst playoffs of his career till game 1 at Toronto. Before tip-off today, he'd been converting just 32% of his field goal attempts and 39% of his 3-pointers while scoring a measly 10.9 points per game - which are worse than Carmelo Anthony's numbers for the Oklahoma City Thunder this postseason.

Coach Ty Lue seemed to have instructed the whole team to feed Kevin Love the ball at every opportunity they could find, and he took 8 shots in the first quarter alone. While he had a slow start, he started to find a rhythm after some excellent ball movement and cuts by him put him in position to throw down a couple of dunks.

Love shot 21 times on the night, making 11 of those shots. He took six 3-pointers, making 2 of them. His final figures of 31 points and 11 rebounds seem much more All-Star worthy than any figures he put up in his previous games, and he seems to have found a groove for himself.

Such an outing will do wonders to his confidence. It was his added scoring punch that allowed the Cavaliers to score 98 points by the end of the 3rd quarter while holding an 11-point lead heading into the 4th quarter. If he keeps up the same level of production, the Cavaliers can expect to make the Finals for a 4th straight season.