LeBron's brilliance proves too much for Raptors ... again

This is why you can't afford to miss when you come at the King.

The Cleveland Cavaliers' Game 1 win over the Toronto Raptors felt like a great escape - a stolen victory, according to head coach Tyronn Lue, after LeBron James shot 12 of 30. Two nights later, the Cavs left Toronto with a 2-0 series lead over the Eastern Conference's No. 1 seed, the Air Canada Centre a smoldering pile of rubble in their rearview mirror after James breathed straight fire for 41 of the game's 48 minutes.

Many factors contributed to Cleveland's Game 2 win: The Cavs maximized their offensive potential by turning the ball over just three times, Kevin Love enjoyed his best game of 2018 (31 points and 11 rebounds) by feasting on smaller Raptors mismatches, and Toronto looked strangely lethargic and out of sync entering the second half with the lead. But as is always the case when dealing with the Cavs, the overriding factor wears No. 23 for the wine and gold.

James finished with 43 points, 14 assists, eight rebounds, and a steal on 19-of-28 shooting. His 13-of-19 performance in the second half alone was breathtaking, sucking out whatever air remained in a building where the Raptors had gone 37-7 coming into the series.

Watch: LeBron's 5 biggest heat-check shots in Game 2

"That drains you mentally and physically," Raptors head coach Dwane Casey said of James' second-half shooting, which largely came from the low-percentage areas between the free-throw line and the perimeter. "I really thought OG (Anunoby) played him as tough as you possibly could, and the couple times we did double-team him, he's such a great passer that you're going to give up a three versus 13 non-paint twos. He was making them. You have to decide right there what you're going to live with, so hats off to him."

For coaches, the playoffs are often about finding the right matchups and figuring out what you're willing to surrender in order to take something more potent away from your opponents. But the NBA has rarely seen a pick-your-poison conundrum like the one James presents when surrounded by shooters (and Cleveland's have started to find their strokes again in this second-round series).

Through two games against the Raptors, James recorded 27 assists while turning the ball over just three times in roughly 88 minutes of action. He now owns two of the only three 40-point, 10-assist, one-turnover performances in playoff history.

Related: Twitter reacts to James taking over 'LeBronto'

"The scouting report on me is to dare me to shoot jump shots, keep me out of the paint, not allow me to go to the free-throw line," James told reporters after Game 2. "I try to put in a lot of work in other facets of my game to try and neutralize their game plan. I worked extremely hard on my jump shot. After my first year in Miami, I tried to work on my post game and ways I can score in the post - just be very efficient. Tonight was a byproduct of all that. They kind of laid off me, and I was able to make some jump shots and feel good going into the stretch of the game. Then, in the post, be able to read and react to the defense and trust what I have been working on. ...

"Just being able to have counters to whatever the defense tries to put at me," James explained. "I gave you a little inside of my mind and showed them tonight as well."

Love is nearing the conclusion of his fourth season alongside James and has witnessed some of LeBron's most iconic moments firsthand, but if you ask the All-Star big man, he sensed it would be a magical night hours before tipoff Thursday.

"There's certain times, I would say, seeing 'Bron in shootarounds or in his preparation, where you know he's going to have a good night. This morning, you could just sense it," Love told theScore. "He knew what was at stake. He knew that getting us another one here at their place was going to be huge for us, and he came out and played that way from the jump."

Love added that James "called his shots" from the morning.

"When he went over his right shoulder and then went over his left shoulder (in the second half) - he said when he got the mismatch, that he was going to do that," Love said. "That's one of the examples I could use of just how locked in he was throughout the entire shootaround."

The very thought - LeBron, up 1-0 on the road against the No. 1 seed, in the unfamiliar position of being the underdog in a series, coolly calling his shots for later that night - is enough to make you wonder if there's any hope at all for Eastern Conference foes like Toronto.

Asked how the Raptors will approach their 2-0 deficit as the series heads to Cleveland, Casey answered, "The only thing you can do is come out and play for pride, and prove the fact that you're a better team than we showed tonight,"

A 59-win team that played the part of juggernaut all year, reduced to playing for pride two games into the postseason's second round. Welcome to the warped world of LeBron's Eastern Conference.