Cavs show Raptors resistance is futile with offensive onslaught in Game 2

For the most part, the Toronto Raptors made the adjustments they needed to make in Game 2 against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday.

They plugged Norman Powell and Patrick Patterson into the starting lineup in place of DeMarre Carroll and Jonas Valanciunas, giving themselves a speedier, stretchier look. They made a concerted effort to recover to shooters, and run the Cavs off the 3-point line. They made sound rotations, communicated well, avoided over-helping, and generally goaded Cleveland into taking a bundle of contested jump shots. Valanciunas looked miles better in his role off the bench, Kyle Lowry had another strong game, and the Raptors took good care of the basketball. None of it mattered one whit. The Cavs' response was tantamount to a laugh in the face.

They hit shot after shot after shot, and then they hit some more shots. They drilled their first eight 3-pointers of the game - the bulk of them heavily contested - and finished with an 18-of-33 mark, outscoring Toronto 54-15 from long range. When the Raptors did succeed in running them off the arc, the Cavs hurt their smaller lineups with bruising post play, or attacked closeouts to get to the rim or the free-throw line.

Kyrie Irving and J.R. Smith continued to rain high-arcing threes as if the hands in their faces were translucent. Channing Frye returned to his typical Raptors-tormenting ways after an off night in Game 1. Tristan Thompson continued to shut down drive after drive with his balanced, fleet-footed defense. (DeMar DeRozan played one of his worst games of the season, but Thompson had a lot to do with it.) And LeBron James continued to do whatever he wanted, all while trolling the ever-loving piss out of the would-be challengers to his Eastern Conference hegemony.

Unlike in Game 1, the Raptors' 14-point halftime deficit was not of their own making. The Cavs hit contested shots while the Raps missed open ones. They had hardly any significant breakdowns, and, from a process standpoint, played about as good a defensive half as you could expect. But the Cavs hung 62 points on them anyway, and the demoralized Raptors frayed and frayed until breaking apart in the third quarter.

Going small was a reasonable gambit, but it hardly moved the needle. The Raptors have rightly been talked up for their versatility, and all the different types of lineups they can trot out. But the Cavs have had an answer for each iteration. In the end, the Raptors were just up against too much shooting, too much playmaking, too much offensive weaponry, too much LeBron. Once again, they were totally outclassed, and totally helpless to do anything about it.

Any underdog team needs to convince itself that a talent disparity can be overcome through sound strategy, execution, and sheer force of will. The Raptors have spent this whole season gearing up to take another swing at the Cavs. They bolstered and balanced their roster with excellent trades at the deadline, and put together the best defensive team - if not the best team, period - they've ever had. Even if they were still ceding the talent edge to Cleveland, they could reasonably tell themselves the gap was smaller than it was a year ago (when they took the eventual champs to six games in the conference finals) and could be overcome if a few breaks went their way.

The Cavs on Wednesday night showed the Raptors how great that disparity still is. They reminded them that, try as they might, their resistance in the face of such a disparity is almost certainly futile. For all their roster moves and internal development this season, the Raptors don't look any closer than they were a year ago. This was soul-destroying stuff.

Yes, the Raptors got blown out in Games 1 and 2 last year, too, before improbably rebounding at home to even the series. Maybe they can manage that again; Cleveland was a sub-.500 team on the road this season, and at the very least seem due for a bit of 3-point regression.

But whatever happens in Toronto, there's little reason to think it will make any difference to the Cavs, who look about as unbothered as a team can look in the second round of the playoffs. And there's no reason to think it will, in the end, make the Raptors cause feel any less lost.