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Despite being without the likes of Larry Nance Jr., Rodney Hood, Cedi Osman, Tristan Thompson and Kyle Korver, the Cavs were able to come back from a 79-64 deficit at half-time to defeat the current Eastern Conference leaders 132-129 in a game that was all about the performance of LeBron James.Raptors were above the home side till the halfway mark, and they themselves are to be blamed for the loss.
So without further ado, let's dive into the analysis of this game with the five biggest talking points and a takeaway.
# 5 LeBron James the man to look upon
The three-time NBA champion and four-time NBA Most Valuable Player haunted the side from Canada once again as he finished the game with 35 points to his name with 17 assists and 7 rebounds, while notably becoming the first player in history to record such figures without a single turnover.
James absolutely took over in the fourth. He scored 14 points on three-of-four shooting from the field, draining seven of his nine free throw attempts.
James made bullet passes to his teammates, who netted almost every open shot. Like the pass to Ante Zizic in the third quarter, with 04:58 left on the clock. James was in flow of his layup when he saw Zizic standing free at the 3 point line and passed the ball in no time which the Croatian netted without fail.
# 4 Defence Huge concern for Cavs
James propelled the Cavs to a thrilling comeback with 35 points. Yet it was Cleveland’s defence that created the need for such a performance in the first place. The Cavs have been deficient on that end of the floor this season, but on Wednesday night they were in rare form. It took only a half for the Raptors to pile up 79 points, a shocking proportion of which were scored in completely uncontested fashion. The moment there are more than a few empty possessions for some time, then Cavaliers start losing grip over the game because they can't really stop the opponent's offense. They need to work on defence and fix the leaks, beacuse when they do the scorecard reads a different score.
# 3 Half of Records for The Raptors
When the halftime buzzer rang, the Eastern Conference leaders held a 79-64 lead over the Cleveland Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena on Wednesday night.
Toronto's 79 points tied a franchise record for the most scored in any half. It was in 1997 when the Raptors dropped 79 past.
On Wednesday, the Raptors converted 32-of-51 from the field, 3-of-5 from the charity stripe, and a scorching 12-of-18 from behind the arc. Their 12 3-pointers also tied a franchise record for a first half, equalling a mark set against the Philadelphia 76ers on March 13, 2005.
Toronto actually trailed 42-38 at the end of 12 minutes but rode the play of its second unit for the better part of the second quarter to take back the lead.
# 2 Kevin Love and Hill steps up to the occasion
Kevin Love, playing his second game after missing 21 games with a broken left hand, finished with 23 points and 12 rebounds. With the Cavs up 125-124, James drove the lane and whipped the ball into the corner to Love, who knocked down his 1,000th career 3-pointer. Kevin Love’s corner three-pointer, gave Cleveland an insurmountable four-point lead with 27.5 seconds left.
George Hill had his best game since joining the Cavs. Hill scored 22 points with 3 rebounds, 2 steals and 1 block in the 35 minutes he played. He had shot just 12 of 31 in his previous five games.
#1 Takeaway (Play-off Trailer)
The 2016 NBA Champions have been largely disappointing this season as they currently lie third in eastern conference with regular season record of 42-29.
Meanwhile, the Raptors became the first team to lose after scoring a season-high 79 points in the first half and are now just 4.5 games ahead of the Boston Celtics who have a firm grip on second place. While the Raptors have been impressive this year, they once again became victims to James' Cavaliers with Wednesday's win taking their losing run in Cleveland to 1-8.
Raptors were also swept 4-0 by the Cavs in the last year's Eastern Conference Semi-Finals and could face the same opponent in the finals this year, if the standings remain the same.
The two teams will meet again at the Quickens Loan Arena for the final time in the regular season on April 3.
Guess the Lakers players!
