A few thoughts:

• Great turnaround by KLove after the two games in Toronto. Part of it is just making shots he usually makes, but part is a different mindset. He went into the game and posted up a lot in the first quarter, and that set the one for the team. Props to him, the team and Lue for giving him great position from the get-go.
• The Cleveland pick n’roll defense won the the game. They trapped very aggressively when the ball handler was Lowry or DeRozan, throwing in some hedges sometimes. As a result, Lowry could never turn the corner on the pick n’ roll situations, and that led to countless turnovers.
• On the Toronto pick n’ roll, I think it comes down to the fact that their usual screen setters (Scola, Biyombo, Patterson) are neither great passer nor great creators off the dribble. So when you trap the ball handler (be it Lowry, DD or CoJo), not only is the pass to the screen setter tough, but even when it is made, Toronto does not take advantage of the 4 on 3 opportunities. Of course, credit also goes to Cleveland being able to slide back into their rotations quickly after the pass.
• Related to the last point, two things for Toronto. First, when they ran pick n’ rolls with Lowry and JV, it was a lot more effective because whether he rolls or pops, JV is a lot more dangerous than Biyombo or Scola. So part of it is just that the guy supposed to solve that dilemma is far from 100%. Nevertheless, I don’t get how Casey did not adapt to this trapping defense by running Lowry/DD pick n’ rolls, even if they are not strong screen setters. That would force the D either to switch (and DD can take advantage of Irving one on one), go under (this has proved problematic for Toronto as DD is not a good 3pt scorer, and Lowry never found a rhythm) or, if they trap, it would allow those 4 on 3 situations to start with the ball in Derozan or Lowry’s hands. I’m not saying this is the solution to everything, but it would have made Cleveland’s defense adapt and the Raps could have gotten interesting sets from that.
• On offense, Lebron really has a similar role to Westbrook in the OKC-GSW series. He’s just as locked in, and he’s one of the greatest passers and defense readers of all-time. The Irving/LBJ pick n’ roll was deadly: do you pay more attention to LBJ as a screen setter who can either dive aggressively, or set up and make the perfect pass, or on Irving, who can beat you off the dribble or shoot over you if you go under? This is a great example of having two dangerous players on the pick’n rolls so that the defense needs to account for both despite the screen. This is similar to what GSW did all year (at least until OKC managed to defend it so well) with the Curry/Green picks, where both can create the offense.
• That elbow play that Cleveland ran about five times in a row in the first half is incredibly hard to defend. LBJ has the ball at the elbow, so you know he can shoot from there (better than on high pick’n rolls at least). Then there’s an off-ball screen (usually between Delly and Richard Jeff or KLove), where one of them dives to the basket, and the screener goes to screen LBJ’s defender. There are just so many ways for Cleveland to score, it’s impossible to defend without a rim protector. LBJ can shoot if his defender anticipates the screen, he can blow by on the dribble. But you also have Delly sliding back to the three point line (which you need to defend), and great shooters on the opposite side.
• The importance of Frye and JR smith cannot be overstated. They clear the half-court for that elbow play so well, and really make Biyombo (the best rim protector of the series) a lot less important on defense. And the guy on JR needs to stay in his shorts by fear of his shooting, which consummates a defender on every Cleveland attack. And on defense, both of them did a good job reacting to the traps to either slide and not give Tornto any advantage when getting out of it, or creating turnovers.
• Going back to the pick n’rolls mechanics, having LBJ or Love as a screener is deadly. Once again, it goes back to screen setters who can read the defense quickly and make the right pass. Whatever choice you make on the D, there is trouble awaiting.
• Last game, Toronto decided to let them shoot from 3 and protect the paint aggressively (except when Frye was in, which always poses great problems), and that worked really well. This time they defended higher on the 3, but Cleveland also made sure that they would not settle for these shots: that was why posting KLove a lot in the first quarter was so important, it put pressure on the interior defense of the Raps, built a strong lead for Celevalnd right away, and got the whole team on good track.
• Toronto needs to get space for Lowry and Derozan (although Derozan was less terrible than Lowry with the ball, at least aggressive enough to get to the line often). That means either having a creator as the screener, or at least running screen the screener sets. that way, the Raps ball handler starts with a lag in the D, and it opens up the play.
• The rebound battle also went the other way (pretty obvisouly). I don’t like to use total rebound numbers, because a team shooting better is always going to have more rebounds (because you get a greater share of defensive rebounds). This is also why I think the argument that says ‘the best rebounding team almost always win’ is a little stupid, because the team shooting the best almost always has the more rebound. And the team shooting the best will, of course, win more often than not.
• With that being said, under Cleveland’s basket, the Raps only got 22/32 rebounds (68.75%). Under Toronto’s basket, Cleveland got 38/43 rebounds (88.3%). Apart from greater individual effort, the lineups with Frye and Love were instrumental in that difference. Either Casey went small, but with the rebounding problems it creates, or he had Biyombo/JV/both, but then they were at the three point line.
• Combigning that rebound discrepancy with the huge number of TOs the trap defense got makes games impossible to win. What made the Cleveland D successful is that the three players not on the pick n’roll were super focused, and really took advantage of the slow passes the trap created. At the end of the third, I think it was 18TO to 10, but most importantly, Cleveland had about 25 points off those TO, and Toronto only 10.
• Great showing by the Cavs, big props to Lue for understanding how to disrupt the Raps offense while using his weapons efficiently on offense. It will be interesting to see how Casey reacts in Toronto, but also if Tornto players can come out with more energy against this very aggressive D. I think Casey has Biombo as the green setter to get the big out of the paint (which usually works pretty well), but as much as I like him, Biz cannot set up a play when getting the ball on a 4 on 3 (although it’s been two games in a row where he has made a good elbow shot).
• Finally, how hard is it to beat a team when one of the greatest layers ever is not the clear cut number one option (as far as shot selection go)? Lue’s attack, of giing the ball to Lebron at the beginning of almost every possession is deadly, because he’s the best at exploiting even little gaps on D. That way, he can either score, or get great passes for other players. Using Kyrie’s great one-on-one attack after some movement works ideally: it doesn’t lead to very stagnant possession which can kill rhythm, and it sometimes gets Kyrie to attack against a slower defender after all the switches the Raps have to make.

So that was a long write-up, but very interesting reaction by Cleveland n both sides of the ball after the two losses in Toronto. Let’s see if the Raps can get back into it next game in a do or die situation, with Jurassic Park behind them.