It's time for the enigmatic Cleveland Cavaliers to put their money where there mouth is, insisting they're ready to make a run at successfully defending their NBA crown despite losing their final four games of the regular season.
A fair amount of roster shuffling and mounting losses, including a 7-10 record in March would tend to indicate otherwise however. Granted injuries played a significant role, yet a final regular season record of 51-31, while losing out to Boston for the top seed in the league's Eastern Conference are merely the tip of the iceberg amongst ominous signs that a repeat championship seems rather unlikely.
The Cavaliers' first round opponent, the Indiana Pacers finished with a 42-40 record, but make no mistake, they're a dangerous team. In a prelude of what's to come in fact, the Cavs and Pacers battled in a double overtime thriller in Cleveland on April 2nd, featuring a colossal scoring duel between Paul George of Indiana and LeBron James, ultimately won by the Cavs, 135- 130. George outscored James 43-41, in a contest the Cavs should've won in regulation but didn't, largely due to their usual mental lapses in effort and execution, particularly on the defensive end.
The Cavs were merely 23-23 after Jan. 10th with coach Ty Lue resting both Kyrie Erving and James several times on the back end of games on back to back nights. The practice was controversial as a national TV audience missed out on seeing the duo, even drawing the ire of NBA Commissioner, Adam Silver. To be fair, other teams have done the same thing with their elite players, marquee TV audience or not.
The one 'signature' win you might call it came on April 5th as the Cavaliers went into Boston and totally dominated the Celtics from start to finish to win going away in what was billed as the battle for top seed in the East. Unfortunately, that lead was rather short lived as the Cavs proceeded to come home two nights later for the first of two mystifying losses to the Atlanta Hawks. After the game, coach Lue was quite upset referring to it as a 'bad performance.' He also bemoaned the fact the team failed to capitalize on their huge Celtic victory.
In that AP story, Lue was also quoted after the game as saying, "...That's who we've been. That's who we are. I hate it. These games like this come back and bite you, especially down the stretch when you're trying to get some rest. ...." General Manager, David Griffin, the masterful chess player in manipulating the club's roster stated he was "pissed off" they blew the top seed while at the same time expressing the belief the team plays it's best with their backs to the wall.
We are about to find out, however, it's a dangerous viewpoint for any team to have in the ultra-competitive NBA. They certainly pulled the rabbit out of the hat in the finals last year to literally steal the championship from under the noses of the Warriors, but last season was last season and there's no switch to turn on when a team decides it suddenly desires to sustain maximum effort all game long game after game.
Coach Lue has brought up the notion in post game comments to the media that he has some sort of 'secret' defense to employ in the playoffs. He'd better because the Cavs rarely stopped anyone when it counted and finished with a very poor ranking of 22nd in the league on defense. As much as I'd like to believe him, I suspect the idea may be more 'smoke and mirror's than anything. Maybe newly added 7'3" center, Edy Tavares can play superman late in playoff games where the team has a large lead and can come in and swat away some of the endless easy layups the team relinquishes.
Frankly, Tristan Thompson is sorely lacking as any type of legitimate rim protector on defense and while he's a top rebounder, he's a minimal scoring threat and a major liability on the free throw line. Andrew Bogut going down in less than a minute of play was admittedly a devastating injury.
The 'Big 3' of James, Love and Irving need more help from their friends in shouldering some of the scoring load. The team averaged 110 ppg., but, guys like J.R. Smith who played a key role in last season's title and Kyle Korver, the sharpshooter acquired from the Hawks need to step up and consistently hit some shots to make another title run. The bench was woefully inadequate much of the season, continually being unmercifully outscored by other teams' benches.
Love is a tremendous rebounder and outlet passer, leading the club with 11.3 rebounds per game and prior to the knee injury causing him to miss several weeks, had been averaging over 20 ppg. as well. The Cavs seemed to be playing their best in games where Love scored early and often, taking much of the load off Irving and James. Still, the team consistently let large leads slip away resulting in wins that should've come without having to expend so much late 4th Quarter energy.
Edy Tavares to the rescue !
Seriously, don't count on that, but, at 7'3" it brings a dimension the club could sorely use at the defensive end when the Cavs need to get stops. Now, if he can learn the plays as well as tendencies of his teammates....
The road to the championship runs through Cleveland. As LeBron James sets out to play in an amazing 7th straight NBA finals, he's the one player seemingly ready for the challenge ahead. Are the rest of the Cavaliers ? We're about to find out.
DAVE BURKEY
E-mail: daveywriter@yahoo.com
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