Cavaliers' Kevin Love gave the Raptors fits in Game 2

TORONTO — The Cleveland Cavaliers' Kevin Love isn't your traditional centre.

A long-time power forward, the five-time all-star has had trouble holding his own defensively in the post against more physical big men.

In Game 1, Toronto Raptors centre Jonas Valanciunas exploited this by continually attacking Love in the paint at every opportunity. Love had no response as Valanciunas shot 5-of-9 from the field, scoring 11 of his 21 points with Love guarding him.

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At one point, Love felt so helpless that he deliberately hacked Valanciunas across his arms on a shot attempt and as the Raptors' seven-footer got up and walked toward the free throw line, he mouthed to his teammates, "He can't guard me."

Canadian Tristan Thompson, from Brampton, Ont., was later brought in by Cleveland head coach Tyronn Lue and had much more success matching the physicality of Valanciunas as Love slid back to his natural position.

Game Wrap: LeBron James, Cavaliers dominate Raptors in Game 2

7 years ago

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Cleveland takes 2-0 series lead with 128-110 victory. James 43 points and 14 assists.

So Lue surprised some by sticking with Love as his starting centre in Game 2. But Lue obviously recognized the matchup problems Love presented and the coach was rewarded.

Love scored 31 points on 11-of-21 shooting as the Cavaliers soundly defeated the Raptors 128-110 on Thursday at the Air Canada Centre to head back to Cleveland up 2-0 in their Eastern Conference semifinal series.

After watching film of Game 1, Lue noticed the Raptors' guards switching onto Love whenever he would come and set a pick on the perimeter, giving his centre a clear height advantage in the post.

It was something the Cavaliers continued to exploit early and often, whether it was Kyle Lowry or DeMar DeRozan.

"Seeing the mismatches tonight, I tried to take advantage of those in the post and just went to work," Love said.

The Cavaliers got Love involved early as the 29-year-old led the team with nine field goals attempted in the first quarter. Once he established a rhythm, his teammates continued to feed him the ball.

Love wanted the ball

LeBron James said he saw a look in Love's face — he wanted the ball more and more and James didn't hesitate in giving his teammate what he wanted.

"He had his three-[point shooting] going a little bit early but more importantly, he was just working in the paint, said James, who finished with 43 points. "He wasn't settling. It allowed us to continue to feature him and continue to go to him … and then when they started to go small in the third quarter, I called sets just to get it right to him."

The six-foot-10 Love scored 58.1 per cent of his points on Thursday in the paint. When the Raptors tried to counter by putting a traditional centre like Valanciunas or Jakob Poeltl on him, Love was too quick off the bounce on the perimeter or would have ample space for a jump shot out of respect for his speed.

When a quicker C.J. Miles was given a shot, Love proceeded to bully the Raptors small forward in the post on three different occasions in the third quarter. On another play, Love passed out of a double team in the paint to an open teammate and an easy jump shot.

"We just can't rely on just one guy being able to guard a guy like Kevin Love, it's a team effort," said Toronto's DeMar DeRozan. "We all got to be locked in one stream together defensively, understanding how we can help."

Love's versatile skill set can be a defensive nightmare for opposing coaches and centres.

"Kevin made a couple of shots early — that opened the floor for LeBron and had them guess if they wanted to double team or play him heads-up," Lue said. "We can use him in different situations like running wide pin-down [screens] for him like he's a guard and curling him out of corners with bigs guarding him. When he's running the floor, bigs are taught to run back to the paint. So if he's sprinting the floor in transition, he's going to get open threes in transition like he got tonight."

Love has spent the majority of his 10-year professional career as a power forward. But on the first day of training camp in October, Lue made the decision to shift him to centre, where he started 59 games this season.

Lue believed it would create more offensive spacing and present mismatches that the Cavaliers could exploit. Love wasn't a big fan initially and had to learn on the fly.

Butted heads with Lue

He admits butting heads with Lue on occasion over his four seasons with Cleveland, including over his preferred position. But at the end of the day, Love is fully committed to doing whatever it takes to deliver another championship for the franchise.

"[Lue] sees something out there in me at the five spot, especially on the offensive end," Love said. "I've always tried to do the best I can in willingness to sacrifice for this team and sometimes I'm going to have a little bit of push back and I think that's in some cases healthy. But I respect Ty, I love Ty and I think it's good for [both of] us."