CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A few weeks back, prior to the second meeting of the season, Toronto Raptors head coach Dwane Casey lamented his team's pick-and-roll coverage, believing the Cleveland Cavaliers were capable of exploiting it.

Turns out, he was right. The Cavs did it for a second time on Tuesday night during a 112-106 win, a game in which Cleveland had a 113.8 offensive rating.

But it's starting to become more obvious that figuring out ways to stop the Cavs' offense isn't just a Toronto problem, especially when wily veteran Jose Calderon is spearheading the attack.

"His ability to make shots and be very cerebral with our packages, it allows him to be successful," LeBron James said of Calderon. "I think he's just a smart, smart basketball player. I mean, I've played against the Spain National Team for a long time and there's not one player on that team that's not, pretty much, smart and knows how to play. You look at the Gasol twins. You look at Ricky Rubio. And Rodriguez and Jose and all those guys, they were just really smart and they were never going to beat themselves. So for us to have him has just been an extra security blanket for us."

On Tuesday night against one of his old teams, Calderon tallied a season-high 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting and 3-of-5 from beyond the arc. He also dished out four assists against just one turnover, finishing with a team-high plus/minus (+27).

Sometimes those individual plus/minus numbers can deceive. But in this case, Calderon's fingerprints were all over the outcome, turning the Cavs into an unstoppable offensive machine.

It all started with his aggressive scoring mindset, which helped open up Cleveland's offense even more than usual. During one of the timeouts, Kevin Love even approached stand-in coach Larry Drew to discuss Calderon's effectiveness running the pick and roll, as Love felt the Cavs could eventually force the Raptors to adjust.

That symbiotic relationship was obvious early in the second quarter.

After the Cavs' bench allowed the Raptors to climb back in the game, Drew swapped out Jordan Clarkson for Calderon and put Rodney Hood back in as well. Less than 30 seconds later, Love popped off the bench.

Two possessions later, the Calderon-Love combination went to work.

By this time, Calderon had already carved up Toronto's defense, scoring 11 points on 5-of-5 from the field in the first quarter -- all buckets created from the surgical pick and roll with either Love or James.

So concerned about Calderon getting into the paint or rising for his patented pull-up jumper once again, the Raptors had two big men waiting for Calderon following a double screen.

Instead of forcing a tough shot, which Clarkson -- who often drives with blinders on -- was doing before getting pulled, Calderon found Love spotted up on the right side for a clean 3-pointer. Raptors center Jakob Poeltl couldn't recover in time. Love buried the jumper and the Cavs' lead grew to four.

On the next possession, Calderon and Love once more executed the two-man game brilliantly. This time, Calderon veered away from the screen, pulling two defenders toward him. He quickly stopped and snapped a pass to Love, who smartly set up a few feet beyond the arc so Poeltl had more distance to cover. Another made bomb that led to a seven-point advantage and Raptors timeout.

"Jose is just a guy, he just knows his position," Drew said. "He knows how to play his position. He's not quick. He's not fast. He doesn't do a lot of things out on the court that are very sexy, but he just gets things done and little things like that, big men have an appreciation for. Kevin knows that if he sets a good screen on Jose's guy, chances are he's going to be open. The two of them out on the floor, they really mesh real well."

With Calderon and Love operating together at such a high level, it puts the defense in a constant bind.

In the first quarter, the Raptors honored Love's outside shot, unwilling to send help on drives. Typically, Serge Ibaka is an intimidating force around the rim. But with Love on the perimeter, Ibaka preoccupied and Kyle Lowry bumped on the screen, Calderon was able to get all the way to the rim before the slower Jonas Valanciunas could contest.

"For me, he's such a threat coming off pick-and-roll," Love said. "I know tonight there were a couple times in the first half where not only was he looking for me on the perimeter, but I was setting the screen for him and whether it was the big or the point guard that was guarding him they had to pick their spots. He was getting to his pull-up jump shot and knocking that down, got into the lane and finished and was getting to his 3-point shot. I think he helps with our spacing."

When the Cavs weren't wearing the Raptors down with the Calderon-Love two-man game, they shifted their focus to the lethal 1-3 pick and roll, a staple set over the last three years when Kyrie Irving was still around. Calderon certainly isn't Irving. But the idea remains the same. And the effect is clear.

"Jose and Bron, the combination that we threw, some of the pick-and-roll stuff that we ran, we were very successful with," Drew said. "And the other thing that I really like about Jose is that he's not afraid to get (hit) when it comes to where he has to set the screen on a big guy. He's not afraid to take that blow. ... I don't want to say it makes it simple to run our offense, but we know that when it comes to setting screens, we know that if Jose's involved, we know he's going to try to get his body on a guy and that's something we really encourage from all of our players."

James' defender doesn't want to give him a running start to the hoop after setting a screen so typically he will drop back a bit or go under. But paying extra attention to James, which every defense will do, frees up Calderon to get a clean look at a jumper or a driving layup.

Trapping Calderon, who rarely makes mistakes, won't work either. Not with his basketball IQ, vision, passing and the number of shooters on the floor.

"I think they were really worried about LeBron because of what he did the last game we played them," Calderon said. "So I was trying to be aggressive just to open up that for later in the game. I think for me being aggressive, after they went to cover me, went to a different coverage and K Love got easy shots."

That's the Calderon Effect. The Cavs, who are 23-9 with Calderon as a starter, would be wise to remember it when determining the upcoming playoff rotation.