Kasler: Love, Cavs reassert dominance

The Cavaliers put consecutive losses to the Raptors in their rearview mirror en route to a 38-point beatdown Wednesday night.

Always tough to find unique analysis in a blowout win, so I’ll begin with a bit of a mea culpa:

1. I didn’t think the Cavs had a win like this in them. In fact, I wasn’t sure they had a win in them at all.

2. I thought the Raptors displayed a unique resolve in winning Games 3 and 4 after being trounced in the opening two games of the series. Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan were clicking, Bismack Biyombo was chirping, and the Raptors had seemingly barreled into the Cavs' castle to show everyone that the emperor indeed had no clothes.

3. I was hugely mistaken. The Cavs -- and Kevin Love, in particular -- came out of the gates like a pack of rabid dogs and jumped all over the helpless Raptors. Any crisis of confidence I wrongly assumed would plague the Cavs on Wednesday simply never existed in the first place.

4. The Cavs dominated in a way that hit the reset button on this series and washed away the lackadaisical effort they put forth in Games 3 and 4. Cleveland's average margin of victory in this series is now a whopping 29 points.

5. So basically, when the Cavs show up and play near their capability, Toronto has no chance at winning. None.

6. I’ve been wrong about a lot of things in this series so predicting the outcome of Game 6 is probably unwise. But I’ll do it anyway. If the Cavs duplicate their defensive strategy from Wednesday -- trap Lowry and DeRozan hard and often -- and don’t go inexplicably cold from the field, they will leave Toronto on Friday with a resounding win.

7. On Wednesday, the offense played with pace, and guys knocked down shots. That began with Love. After disappearing the past two games, he was an absolute force in Game 5. I didn’t think he had it in him (add that to the growing list of things I got wrong during this series).

8. In just 24 minutes, Love was 8-10 from the field (3-4 from deep) and a perfect 6-6 from the free throw line. He finished with a team leading 25 points. To win Game 6, Love doesn’t even need to be this good. He just has to chip in and make a handful of open looks.

9. Kyrie Irving was outstanding as well, posting 23 points in 27 minutes of play. Lowry had outplayed him two nights in a row, but Irving - like Love - didn't shrink from the challenge.

10. And then, of course, there is LeBron James who notched a ho-hum 23 points, eight assists and six rebounds in 32 minutes.

11. If you’re counting along, that’s 61 points for the Big Three, none of who played in the fourth quarter. If they can generate that kind of output once more, this series is over.

12. Tristan Thompson desperately needed to assert himself in this game, and he did. Thompson grabbed 10 rebounds and scored nine points -- not eye-popping numbers but a valuable contribution insofar as he had been badly outplayed by Biyombo for most of this series.

13. I don’t know of any substantive adjustments the Raptors can make headed into Game 6. They need to hope the Cavs miss a majority of their open looks and also revert to the passive defensive principles from Games 3 and 4 that saw Lowry and DeRozan operating in space and getting to spots at will.

14. It is, of course, possible that the Cavs show up Friday night and suffer through another dreadful shooting night. But I think that possibility was minimized by the confidence boost that comes from beating a team by 38 points in a must-win game.

15. All the previous 14 points distill down to one: The Cavs now have a three-game sample that proves they are the far superior team when they play fast and smart and knock down a reasonable number of open looks (those looks will be there again on Friday night, too). If I’m Tyronn Lue, I ask my squad for a duplicate effort and level of focus. I adjust nothing, knowing that sound execution means victory.

16. Friday night could be a nail-biter, but I’m thinking the more likely outcome is ESPN cameras panning the Cavs’ sideline in the fourth quarter, catching James and Irving and Love talking about the next stop in this season’s journey.

Follow me @JKaslerHoops