Cavs want to keep pressure on Raptors

The stakes are getting higher and the Cavaliers are playing more and more as a team as the playoffs progress — good news for the Wine and Gold, but bad news for the team standing in their way.

The Cavs have a 2-0 lead over Toronto in the Eastern Conference semifinals heading into Game 3 at 8:30 p.m. May 5 at

Quicken Loans Arena. They have beaten the Raptors in eight straight playoff games dating back to 2016.

“We can’t relax,” Cavs forward Jeff Green told reporters in Toronto after the Cavs buried the Raptors, 128-110, in Game 2 on May 3. “Two games is two games, but we have to protect home court and continue to do what we’re doing. We have to continue to get better at what we’re trying to accomplish.”

The Cavaliers looked like a team that didn’t even belong in the postseason while losing Game 6 of their first round series with the Pacers,

121-87, in Indianapolis on April 27. Since then, they eliminated the Pacers in Game 7, 105-101, at The Q on April 29, beat the Raptors on May 1 in Toronto in overtime, 113-112, and then outscored the Raptors, 67-47, in the second half on May 3 to take command of the series.

Green was a big part of the success in Toronto with 16 points in Game 1 and 14 in Game 2, but it is the battle-tested Cavaliers — Kevin Love, J.R. Smith and Tristan Thompson — who are asserting themselves as the Cavs continue to march toward what they hope will be a fourth-straight Finals appearance. LeBron James always asserts himself.

“This is a different team for obvious reasons,” James

said in Toronto after Game 2, referring to a multitude of trades. “At the end of the day, myself, Kev, J.R. and Tristan, we have to be as complete as we can be to have our ultimate success.

“We’re the last four standing from our (2016) championship run. It starts with us and Kyle (Korver) because he’s been with us four a couple years now, too. When we’re productive, that allows everybody else to get into their comfort zone.”

James scored 43 points in Game 2, Love 31, Smith 15 and guard George Hill 13 to go along with Green’s 14.

Being a Toronto Raptor in practice on May 4 could not have been fun. They squandered home-court advantage and might not play another

game in the Air Canada Centre until October. Sweeping the Raptors at The Q (Game 4 is 8:30 p.m. May 7) would finally give James and his teammates a chance to rest.

“We just needed more effort,” Toronto guard Kyle Lowry lamented after the game. “Way more effort. We have to play harder . ... Somehow, some way.”

Losing eight straight playoff games to the Cavaliers is daunting enough for the Raptors without the challenge of ending that dominance at The Q.

Twenty-six teams in NBA history have lost the first two games of a playoff series at home. Only four have bounced back to win the series.