It's been a blowout-filled NBA postseason so far

MIAMI (AP) James Jones was taking a shot in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals, and the crew calling the game on television was instead talking about

MIAMI (AP) James Jones was taking a shot in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals, and the crew calling the game on television was instead talking about James Evans.

As in, the dad on the 1970s sitcom ''Good Times.''

They didn't misspeak. They were just out of material.

Jones and the Cleveland Cavaliers were leading the Toronto Raptors by 41 points at the time, so it's not like there was a whole lot of basketball for Mike Breen, Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson to discuss. And it's been a common problem in these playoffs, where going into Thursday night there's been as many games decided by 25 points or more as there have been decided by five points or less - 17 each.

Welcome to the postseason of blowouts, which are occurring at a rate never before seen in the NBA playoffs.

''I think it just snowballs as a game goes on,'' Raptors coach Dwane Casey said Thursday. ''Guys mentally check out, not check out but relax a little bit, and it snowballs.''

He should know. Of the three games Toronto has lost to Cleveland in this series so far, the closest - the closest! - margin has been 19 points. The others came by 31 and 38, the bigger of those being the debacle in Game 5 on Wednesday.

Until this year, there had been only two instances of a team winning two games in the same playoff series by 30 or more points, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Boston did it to the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1965 NBA Finals, and the Lakers did it against Denver in the first round of the 1987 playoffs.

This year, it's already happened twice.

Before Cleveland did it to Toronto, Miami had wins of 32 and 33 over Charlotte in the East quarterfinals. Down-to-the-wire is now being often replaced by down-big-at-halftime, and the average margin of victory going into Thursday in these playoffs was 14 points.

''The confidence of playing at home,'' Cleveland coach Tyronn Lue said Thursday, when asked if he could figure out why the blowout rate is so high. ''I think the environment is very special. I think the fans come out and support, and they're at a high level knowing that everything is heightened during the playoffs. I think teams feed off that.''

There's been eight games in this postseason decided by 30 points or more, a new NBA playoff record.

Oklahoma City has been all over the map when it comes to routs, posting wins by 28, 29 and 38 but taking losses by 27 and 32. In the East finals, four of the first five games were romps, and out West three of the first four games in the Thunder-Golden State series were decided long before the waning minutes.

Thunder star Kevin Durant has a simple explanation: With the stakes this high, no team will take its foot off the gas when things are going well at this time of the season.

''We tend to just focus on how we can keep making play after play,'' Durant said. ''We make a few shots, get a few stops, you want to continue to be greedy, get more stops and get more easy baskets. ... We just try to continue to keep going.''

That being said, it's easy to understand why even Breen, Van Gundy and Jackson were looking for other things to talk about Wednesday night. They spent much of the fourth quarter discussing classic television shows like ''All in the Family,'' ''Seinfeld,'' ''Sanford and Son,'' ''The Wire'' and ''Hawaii Five-0,'' seeming oblivious to the game happening in front of them.

''We're broadcasting in a conference final game,'' Breen said, almost in a subdued tone, ''and this is what the conversation is.''

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AP Sports Writer Tom Withers in Cleveland and AP freelance writer Ian Harrison in Toronto contributed to this report.