5 takeaways from the Cavs-Raptors barnburner

The Toronto Raptors and Cleveland Cavaliers offered up a potential Eastern Conference Finals preview on national television Wednesday, and despite the Cavs missing five regulars and the Raptors playing the second night of a back-to-back and their ninth game in 14 days, the contest didn't disappoint.

In a wild, see-sawing, ridiculously high-scoring affair, the Cavs rallied from a 15-point halftime deficit to win 132-129. Here are five things to know about one of the most electrifying games of the season.

LeBron LeBron'd

Any discussion of this game obviously has to start here: LeBron James had one of the finest offensive performances of this or any season. He wrought havoc in transition, exploded through every seam in the Raptors' defense, and lasered perfect kick-out pass after perfect kick-out pass to an increasingly confident cadre of Cavs shooters. The Raptors threw multiple looks and defenders at him, but he solved everything, and broke them down time after time.

James finished with 35 points on 26 shooting possessions, along with seven rebounds and 17 assists, all without committing a single turnover. Cleveland hit an absurd 15-of-24 (62.5 percent) from 3-point range, and while James himself went just 1-of-3, he was by far the biggest reason for the team's scalding outside shooting. George Hill, Jose Calderon, and J.R. Smith shot a combined 9-of-9 off passes from James. Yes, his negligent defense had a lot to do with the Cavs surrendering 79 points in the first half (the most any James team has allowed in his 15-year career), but at the other end of the floor, he remains a problem without an answer, and he proved once again how dramatically he can elevate the offensive talent around him.

Another thing this game bore out: Pascal Siakam is Toronto's best answer for James. That's notable because rookie swingman OG Anunoby drew the primary assignment in the teams' first meeting of the year, and acquitted himself quite well, allowing the Raptors to defend straight up and stay home on shooters in a way they hadn't been able to do in the past (James recorded just one assist in that game). But Anunoby has since careened into the rookie wall, and didn't provide much of a challenge this time out. James can overpower Siakam with brute strength in the post, but the spindly sophomore forward has the quicks and smarts to keep James in front of him on the perimeter.

The math done changed

In their four-game sweep of the Raptors in last year's Eastern Conference semis, the Cavs thoroughly owned the 3-point line. They hoisted 41 more threes in the series and outscored the Raptors by 102 points from beyond the arc. One hundred and two. In four games. The math problem Cleveland exposed in that series was arguably the biggest impetus for Toronto's culture reset this season, and the proof of the new system's efficacy has been in the pudding.

In the past, the Raptors would've been completely buried by the kind of shooting night the Cavs just had, but on Wednesday, they still almost pulled out a win because they got up 10 more threes than Cleveland, and matched their 15 makes. Nor were they chucking just to chuck; the Raptors' ball and player movement was crisp all night, their motion sets and ball reversals and cuts and flare screens scrambling the Cavs' defense until open looks presented themselves. And sure, Kyle Lowry splashed a handful of heat-check pull-up triples for good measure.

Cleveland's D: Signs of life, mostly still dead

Even if owed something to the Raptors' tired back-to-back legs, credit the Cavs for ramping up the defensive intensity in the second half after giving up 79 in the first and looking dead in the water. They started hedging hard on pick-and-rolls, denying the Raptors the middle of the floor and cutting off passing lanes while recovering fast enough to avoid getting burned by 4-on-3s.

That said, the Cavs still gave up those 79 first-half points, and taken as a whole, this was another miserable defensive showing from one of the NBA's worst defensive teams. They lost track of shooters, were slow to help (when they helped at all), and died on screens. They also got diced up by the Raptors' centers, on the roll and on the boards. Jonas Valanciunas and Jakob Poeltl combined for 32 points on 14-of-19 shooting, and grab nine offensive rebounds.

The last point might be the most pertinent. The Cavs were without Tristan Thompson and Larry Nance, so they won't always be this flimsy in the middle, but Nance is still undersized for a center and Thompson has looked statuesque (and not in the good way) when he's played this season. Even when those guys return, the Cavs don't have enough resistance to offer at the rim, and will still be liable to get abused on the defensive glass.

Ibaka not nice

In the past, it's been Valanciunas getting played off the floor in this matchup, unable to hang with the Cavs' floor-spacing bigs. In this game, Valanciunas was more than fine, but Serge Ibaka - the guy the Raptors acquired with the specific intention of matching the likes of Cleveland's stretchier lineups - looked out of his depth.

Part of that may have been the toll of the Raptors' recent, compressed schedule catching up to Ibaka, who has looked notoriously ragged when playing on minimal rest since coming to Toronto. But it was a little jarring to watch the once-mighty rim protector struggle to make any impact around the hoop, and get burned when he got dragged out to the perimeter. The Cavs finished around him with relative ease. A stint guarding LeBron went about as well as you'd expect.

Ibaka also missed all four of his 3-point attempts, and while the threat of his outside shot still provided some spacing to the Raptors' offense, he didn't offer much in the way of gravity. If he wasn't touching the ball, he was a bystander. He didn't suck in defenders with cuts or hard rolls to the rim, didn't crash the glass or punish the Cavs for sticking smaller defenders on him. The Raptors' curious decision to play him at center in crunch time, after such an invisible performance at both ends, did not pay off.

Feeling the Love

The Cavs have gotten a huge lift from the return of Kevin Love, who went for 23 points, 12 rebounds, and four assists in his second game back from a broken hand. It's immeasurably helpful for James to have a release valve when defenses load up on him; a guy who can not only reliably knock down shots, but who can make plays off the catch, for himself and for others.

Love's most visible contribution to this game was hitting a mammoth corner three off a James drive-and-kick, putting the Cavs up four points with 27 seconds to play. But he also had a big hand in the team's improved second-half defense, moving his feet exceptionally well on switches and in show-and-recover scenarios.

Love is probably overextended defensively as a full-time center, but if he can play this way when Nance and Thompson come back, the Cavs should be in good shape.