Cavs complete most dominant 1st half in conference finals history

The Cleveland Cavaliers aren't playing around.

After watching their 2-0 Eastern Conference final lead evaporate in the two games in Toronto, the Cavs came out on a mission in Game 5 back in Cleveland.

In the first half, they destroyed the Raptors in just about every facet of the game. They blew up their offensive game plan by blitzing pick-and-rolls and smothering ball-handlers. They scrambled the Raptors' defense and whipped the ball around for open threes, beat them out for rebounds and loose balls, forced heaps of turnovers and feasted in transition.

The end result: a 65-34 lead after two quarters, the largest halftime cushion in a conference finals game in NBA history.

On top of that ignominious record, it's the largest deficit the Raptors as a franchise have ever faced at the half - in the regular season or playoffs. So, yeah, LeBron James probably had good reason to feel "a sense of calmness" before the game.