3 takeaways from Cavs' latest win over Raptors

The Cleveland Cavaliers came into Toronto looking to snap both a three-game losing streak and reaffirm their supreme rule over the rest of the Eastern Conference. The Raptors were suddenly nipping at their heels, riding a six-game winning streak in which they outscored their opponents by an average of 23 points.

For the third time this season, the conference finals rematch produced a tight, see-sawing, entertaining battle. For the third time this season, the defending champs emerged victorious.

Here are three* takeaways from the Cavs' 116-112 win.

Raptors still have no answer for Cleveland's stretch bigs

Same story, different day, different big man. In recent games it's been Channing Frye stretching the Raptors' frontcourt to its breaking point, and torching them from deep. On Monday night, it was Kevin Love.

Love shredded Raptors starting power forward Pascal Siakam, pump faking the jumpy rookie into several fly-by closeouts before burying open jumpers or gliding into the paint. Patrick Patterson fared better, but it didn't much matter when the Cavs ran him through screens and forced switches. Any time the Raptors were a hair late on a rotation, Love uncorked a 3-ball without hesitation. It seemed like every closeout was either too aggressive or too timid.

Love finished with 28 points, shot 6-of-11 from downtown, and mitigated some of the Raptors' advantages over him at the other end by cleaning up the glass (12 defensive rebounds) and playing passable post defense. In the end, as has so often been the case in this matchup, Toronto's bigs simply couldn't make back on offense what they gave up at the defensive end.

Speaking of which ...

Jonas Valanciunas may be unplayable in this matchup

Valanciunas has always struggled trying to defend against the Cavs' zippy ball movement and stretchy front line, but he looked particularly lost in this one.

He couldn't assert himself offensively, failing time and again to get deep post position against smaller defenders - which is one of the few ways the Raptors can theoretically force the Cavs to adjust their game plan. On one occasion, he even got stuffed from in close by Richard Jefferson, who was alive back when the actual Cavaliers were brandishing their muskets during the English Civil War.

On defense, Valanciunas was slow to rotate, made little to no impact challenging shots, lost track of the ball, and kept getting himself turned around the wrong way. The Cavs picked on him repeatedly in the pick-and-roll, and it continuously worked to great effect. His woeful stretch to start the third quarter helped put the Raptors in a hole they couldn't dig out of.

Valanciunas finished with four points on 1-of-8 shooting, and was a minus-16 in 25 minutes of action. Even if he was more sluggish than usual, one couldn't help but wonder while watching this performance if the Raptors would've pushed the Cavs to six in the East finals if he hadn't been injured.

DeRozan and Lowry needed more help

The Cavs came in with the aim of making players other than Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan beat them. They sent double-teams early and stacked the strong side, and save for a late-game flurry from Terrence Ross, the Raptors couldn't quite punish them for it.

Lowry and DeRozan still got theirs - combining for 55 points on 19-of-37 shooting - because the Cavs couldn't load up on both of them at once, because Toronto made a concerted effort to get out in transition, and because there isn't really a way to defend against this. But the Raptors who should've been the biggest beneficiaries of the additional attention Lowry and DeRozan garnered, couldn't make good.

Patterson and DeMarre Carroll combined to make 4-of-13 from beyond the arc, which doesn't look too bad if you didn't see how clean those 13 looks were. Siakam was straight-up ignored by the Cavs' defense, and though he managed to stick two short-corner jumpers early on, he didn't do nearly enough - like darting into open space or crashing the offensive glass - to be a net positive at that end. He finished a game-worst minus-21 in just 18 minutes.

Lowry and DeRozan showed up for this big matchup. Unfortunately for them, their teammates couldn't follow suit.

*The unofficial fourth, goes-without-saying takeaway, as ever: LeBron James is really, really good at basketball