Cavs’ Injuries Adding To Difficult March Slate

Since the beginning of the calendar year, the Cleveland Cavaliers seem to have been beset by injuries, which makes people nervous about the prospect to repeating as NBA champions.

It started with JR Smith’s thumb, which has him out until what looks like the middle of March. The question with this malady is will Smith have enough time to round back into shape, more of that meaning will his outside shooting be up to standard come playoff time in the middle of April.

Smith’s shooting and defense were of tremendous importance in the run to the title a year ago, so the seriousness of this injuries cannot be understated.

Then came the Kevin Love situation. First it was his back, which caused him to miss a few games, and now comes the revelation that the all-star forward has some knee problems, and it would not be surprising if he needs to miss about 3-4 weeks of action, which would put him out until the middle of March too.

And we haven’t even mentioned Iman Shumpert’s sprained ankle, which has put him out for a week, and at this point, it would be in the Cavs’ best interest to keep the guard out of action until after the All Star break.

With these injuries to key players, it is kind of amazing the wine and gold are still sitting at 37-16 and with the best record in the Eastern Conference by two games over Boston.

While no injuries are timely, these comes at a particularly bad time because the schedule is very heavy with road games in March.

After a road game tonight and a game vs. Indiana at The Q tomorrow, the Cavaliers start the post break slate with three home games.

Then, starting on March 1st, seven of the next eight games are on the road, and included in that span are games against Boston, Atlanta, Houston, and a home/road back to back against Miami.

It doesn’t get any easier after that. Following two home games against Detroit and Utah, Tyronn Lue’s squad goes back out west for games with the Clippers, Lakers, and Nuggets, then stopping in Charlotte before heading home.

At the very least, that portion of the trip could be concerned with getting Love and Smith back in the groove for the playoffs.

Besides all of the schedule and injury problems, remember that the trading deadline takes place next week, and it wouldn’t be a shock if GM David Griffin makes some sort of a move at the deadline to bolster the Cavs for the stretch run.

That puts Lue squarely in the middle as the guy who has to bring this all together, and he needs to do it while still winning games.

Over the past three years, and we include the year David Blatt was in charge, the Cavs have done a great job integrating new players into their culture, a tribute to both the coaching staff and the team’s leader, LeBron James.

Look at how quickly Derrick Williams has seemed to fit in being here not even a week.

Tristan Thompson summed it up the other night when he said the Cavaliers bring in guys who do one thing really well, and allow them to do what they do best.

The biggest thing is getting everyone in full gear when the playoffs start in the middle of April.

There isn’t any evidence to suggest this organization can’t do just that.

Defense Is Cavs’ Biggest Issue

The Cleveland Cavaliers are in a funk.

Perhaps it’s an annual thing, because they seem to go through this each of the last two Januarys, or maybe they are simply bored as the season has just passed the halfway point.

Maybe it’s a hangover from the franchise’s first title last summer, and they will be able to turn the switch after the All Star game at the end of February.

Whatever, it’s not very pretty to watch.

Monday’s loss to Dallas was embarrassing. Yes, they are missing two starters due to injury in JR Smith and Kevin Love, but so were the Mavericks, who were without Deron Williams and Andrew Bogut.

Dallas is the third worst team in the Western Conference at 18-30 and have a below .500 record at home. And they played the night before and picked up a huge road win, perhaps their biggest of the year, at San Antonio.

Still, the Cavs couldn’t take advantage. They continue to struggle away from Quicken Loans Arena, dropping to 11-10 on the road for the season.

And while LeBron James continues to say the team needs a backup point guard, the biggest need for the wine and gold is to improve their defense.

Yes, if you play an up tempo game, you are going to give up points in the NBA, but the Cavs have allowed 100 or more points in 13 of the last 14 games. In the first 33 games this season, Cleveland held their opponents under 100 points 13 times.

That’s why in today’s “tryout camp” for veterans that the Cavs are having today, we would look for defense first.

Now, that being said, we don’t want players who don’t have any ability to put the ball in the basket, like say DeAndre Liggins. Those players become liabilities when you have the ball and allow teams to double on James and Kyrie Irving.

However, we would look to sign players who can defend, but also have the ability to score. We understand that sounds like an oxymoron, but Tyronn Lue has players who can shoot at his disposal, guys like Smith, Channing Frye, and Kyle Korver.

But outside of Smith, they are not strong on defense.

What is really needed though is an accountability from the current players on the defensive end. We have seen too many opposing players getting by their defender, which causes someone to help, and that leaves someone wide open on the perimeter.

If the help doesn’t arrive, then it’s a lay up. That is happening far too often, and it isn’t just elite players causing problems. Heck, Dallas had Yogi Farrell, currently on a 10 day contract, and Seth Curry, not Steph Curry, parading to the basket.

That just comes down to personal responsibility. Keep your man in front of you. We know they are capable of doing that, which plays into our boredom argument.

We understand there probably isn’t a real threat to the Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference, but that doesn’t mean if these bad habits aren’t curtailed soon, other teams might feel like they have a shot.

Part of the Cavs’ mystique is many other teams are defeated before they take the floor. That’s something they don’t want to lose, and stepping it up on the defensive end is a step in that direction.

January = Drama Month For Cavaliers

It’s the first month of the new year and once again there is drama and anxiousness regarding the city’s professional basketball team.

When you think about it, this has become an annual rite of passage.

In 2015, the team endured LeBron James missing two weeks to basically refresh his body. The Cavs actually dropped below the .500 mark at one point (19-20), and then GM David Griffin traded Dion Waiters and some draft picks for JR Smith, Iman Shumpert, and Timofey Mozgov and the team took off.

Oh, and there was the team bonding bowling trip then coach David Blatt took his squad on.

That team went on to win the Eastern Conference and ultimately lose to Golden State in the NBA Finals.

2016 brought the blowout loss to the Warriors on Martin Luther King Day and the shocking firing of Blatt with the Cavs sitting at 30-11 for the season.

It was a bold move by Griffin, and it turned out to be the right move as well, as the wine and gold went on to win its first NBA title.

So why would you think 2017 would be any different? Apparently, the title doesn’t change everything.

The Cavaliers are going through their first rough patch of the season, losing three of six on a west coast trip and then losing to New Orleans and Sacramento.

The defense has been non-existent and the foul shooting deplorable.

And then LeBron James made comments about the roster and it has been reported that he and owner Dan Gilbert are at odds about the money being spent on improving the roster.

Yep, it’s January alright.

We understand James’ comment about the roster and we believe he is talking more to his teammates than he is to the front office. He is saying that the players can’t continuously look to himself, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love to get things done.

The rest of the team has the ability to make some things happen and they need to step it up.

James keeps talking about another point guard, or playmaker as Griffin says, and we feel another inside defensive presence is a more pressing need. Right now, Tristan Thompson is the only quality interior defender on the roster, and the team certainly could use another big man.

As for the discussion with the owner, we are sure James wants to make sure the luxury tax, of which the Cavs are paying a ton, isn’t a deterrent to defending the title.

James has to believe that the Warriors, Spurs, and any other contenders will add to their roster by the trade deadline, and to be sure, he wants assurances Griffin will not be hamstrung by tax concerns.

But the current roster has to play better too. It seems like a little complacency has set in and right now, the wine and gold have been playing sloppy–too many turnovers and laziness on the defensive end.

They are getting every team’s best shot as the defending champions, and they aren’t responding.

That’s not something Griffin and/or Gilbert can fix. It must come from within the locker room.

We would start by putting Kyle Korver in the starting lineup and putting everyone else back into the roles they were in before Smith went down with his injury.

We would also start giving some minutes to Kay Felder and Jordan McRae, thus cutting back on playing time for James, Irving, and Love.

We may see that as soon as tonight.

Right now isn’t the time to panic. It’s just a normal January for the Cavaliers.

Changes, Injuries Hurting Cavs Right Now

The Cleveland Cavaliers still sit at the top of the NBA’s Eastern Conference standings at 30-12, but they’ve hit a little bit of a slump.

They have split their last eight games, six of those coming on a long trip that spanned from Brooklyn to Golden State.

It appears the changes that have occurred to the roster have caught up a bit to Tyronn Lue and the guys in wine and gold.

First, they lost JR Smith to a thumb injury that will keep him out of the lineup until the middle of March at the earliest. That led Lue to replace him with DeAndre Liggins, but he is not a very good outside shooter, and the league figured that out pretty quickly.

That forced Lue to start Iman Shumpert in Smith’s usual spot, which takes away from the defense on the second unit.

For example, Lue started newly acquired Kyle Korver, Channing Frye, Richard Jefferson, and Liggins with LeBron James at the start of the second and fourth quarters, and San Antonio went on runs both times.

Getting Korver is another change for Lue to handle. He doesn’t seem to know exactly how he fits right now, mostly because of the very little practice time the team has had since he arrived.

Perhaps the best thing to do is to start Korver in Smith’s spot and put everyone back in their accustomed spots, the way it was early in the year when the Cavs were rolling.

Another complication has been nagging injuries to two of the “Big Three”, an ankle problem for Kyrie Irving and a back issue for Kevin Love.

Irving is shooting the three ball like he did two years ago, and his assist numbers are the highest since before James returned to the team.

In the seven games right before he hurt his ankle vs. Boston, Irving averaged 24 points and 10 assists per game with slightly less than three turnovers.

Since returning to the lineup, he has played eight games. His scoring is fine at 23.5 points, but his assists are down to 4.5 and his turnovers are over three per night.

He just hasn’t found the groove he was in before the ankle issue.

Love’s back has been bothering him since the New Orleans game the day after New Year’s, and his production has dropping off dramatically.

He has scored over 20 points just once in that span and hasn’t shot over 50% in a game since the Cavaliers beat the Lakers on December 17th.

Besides the back issues, it seems like the Cavs have gotten away from getting Love touches near the basket, as he is relying more and more on three point shots.

In last night’s loss to the Spurs, Love took 15 total shots, 11 of those from behind the arc.

The team needs a healthy Kevin Love to succeed, but the lack of depth at the #4 and #5 spots in the lineup make it tough for that to happen.

We know James has lobbied for a back up point guard, but right now, the weakness that needs to be addressed is interior defense, which hasn’t been good as of late, and really the only player who can be counted on the contribute there is Tristan Thompson.

GM David Griffin needs to get another big, and the sooner the better.

We have faith that Lue will get the rotations down quickly and when Korver is more acclimated to the team, the Cavs will start playing well again soon.

We know what this team is capable of, and the talent is certainly there. They are simply going through a period where a lot of players are nicked up and others have had to change their roles.

Lue and Griffin have earned the trust that they will take care of this. With three home games following Monday’s game in New Orleans, and then five out of the next six on the road, it might be time to right the ship.

Cavs Loss Last Night? Not A Huge Deal.

If you are a fan of the Cleveland Cavaliers, you have to be disappointed in last night’s 126-91 defeat at the hands of the Golden State Warriors.

There were some things to be concerned about for GM David Griffin and coach Tyronn Lue, but not to be simplistic, but when you shoot 34% and your opponent shoots 53%, you will probably lose.

As LeBron James says, it’s a shot making league, and last night Golden State made theirs, and the Cavaliers did not.

The schedule also didn’t do the wine and gold any favors. The home team was really the home team as Steve Kerr’s team hasn’t left the state of California since they lost in Cleveland on Christmas Day.

On the other hand, the Cavs were on the last game of a six game trip that started in Brooklyn. They didn’t have their legs and it showed.

That doesn’t mean the Cavaliers should be happy this morning, but they shouldn’t be overreaction either.

One of the ways the wine and gold have played well against the Warriors is they have been able to control the tempo, and they have done this by making shots and not letting Golden State get out and run.

When the Warriors fast break, they take a lot of three point shots in transition, and they did that with a few minutes remaining in the first quarter, when Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant started draining threes in transition.

So, not only did the poor shooting kill the Cavs offensively, which is obvious, but it also hurt them defensively, which was a hidden problem.

And though it will sound like sour grapes, the Warriors continued their habit of fouling virtually every time down the floor, hoping the referees will not call them all, and that influenced the misses of many shots, particularly those near the basket.

The other thing in Cleveland’s favor is they did not have JR Smith, and we know that Griffin is not done tinkering with the wine and gold’s roster. He understands his team needs another big man and another playmaker, and we have all the faith in the world that the GM will solve both of those needs.

To be fair, we are sure the Warriors will make a move to add to their roster as well.

Remember, the Cavaliers got blown out at home on Martin Luther King Day a year ago. What happened at the end of the season? A championship. That’s why no one should overreact to what happened yesterday.

If you feel the need to be concerned, worry about the injury to Smith, and getting Kyle Korver up to speed both offensively, but also in the team’s defensive concepts.

Be concerned that DeAndre Liggins’s usefulness is becoming lessened by the game. He cannot shoot, and the opposition knows it. They aren’t guarding him. He also struggles defending players without the ball.

On the other hand, the season is far from over. The playoffs don’t start for three months, and there is plenty of time to improve.

Last year, the Cavs found out after game two of The Finals that they needed to make some adjustments. They did and they won the title.

So, excuse us if we aren’t worried about a game in January against a team the Cavs defeated four consecutive games before yesterday.

In Public, Cavs Take The High Road

Tomorrow evening, the defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers take on the Golden State Warriors in a renewal of the rivalry that has developed since the two teams met for the NBA title in 2014-15.

Steve Kerr’s Warriors won that one in six games, and immediately after Draymond Green commented before their victory parade that the Cavs “sucked”.

Before the Warriors played their regular season game in 2015-16 at Quicken Loans Arena, Stephen Curry said he hoped the visitor’s locker room still smelled like champagne.

Did we mention that when Golden State won the championship, they defeated a Cleveland team without Kevin Love for the entire series, and without Kyrie Irving for all but the first game.

We believe that anyone would rank those two in the top 30 NBA players currently in the league.

Then in last year’s Finals after taking a 3-1 series lead, Klay Thompson of the Warriors commented that LeBron James may have gotten his feelings hurt in Game 4, won by Golden State.

Klay’s squad never won another game in the series.

Thompson commented this week that the Cavs’ actions after coming back to win the title last summer were childish.

Reportedly, at a Halloween Party thrown by James, there were cookies with tombstones with Warriors’ players names on them, and you had to walk over a doll in the likeness of Curry to get through the entrance.

On the other hand, publicly, you never hear a Cavalier player say anything bad about the team they played in each of the last two Finals.

James went out of his way after Friday night’s win over Sacramento to say Golden State has been the best team in the league over the last two years, and the Cavs were just trying to get better.

Some joy from the Cavaliers gets out every once in a while, like Thompson mocking Green’s comments the year prior during the Cleveland victory parade, but for the most part, the Cavs give the Warriors the respect they deserve as a great team.

You just don’t hear that out of the Golden State players, and even Steve Kerr mocked the Quicken Loans Arena scoreboard last week. (NOTE: We think “The Diff” is stupid too.)

On the other hand, James talks up the other players in the league a lot. Perhaps he is using it to soften his opponents, but we genuinely believe he is a fan of the game, and respects the talents of other great players.

When asked earlier in the year about averaging a triple-double, James said he doubted he could do it now, but quickly added that Russell Westbrook could.

Granted we get more coverage of the Cavs than the Warriors, but when was the last time you heard Curry or another Golden State player comment about how good another player in the NBA was?

We also believe other people involved in the NBA are getting tired of the hype surrounding Golden State. Recently, Clippers’ coach Doc Rivers reminded the press that the Warriors have only won one title.

Some of this stems from ESPN’s continuing coverage of anything blue and gold, despite “defending champs” missing from the Golden State story. Some of that is due to the high profile free agent signing of Kevin Durant this summer.

And of course, the four letter network loves to climb on a bandwagon.

If the Cavs win tomorrow, we are sure the players will talk about a great win against a great team to finish off a long trip.

If the Warriors win, we are anxious to see if there will be any humility after losing the title last season. Or will they trash talk some more giving James and his teammates more motivation if the two teams meet for a third time in June.

Either way, the newest rivalry in professional basketball writes another chapter tomorrow. It’s not just another game.

Is LeBron Getting Enough Rest?

The Cleveland Cavaliers seem to be conducting an experiment with LeBron James this season.

With James turning 32 years old at the end of December, one of the favorite things for fans and media alike to debate is rest for The King.

LeBron is currently third in the NBA in average minutes per game, behind only Toronto’s Kyle Lowry and Minnesota’s Zach LeVine, playing slightly over 37 minutes per night, an increase of about a minute and a half more than a year ago.

On the other hand, James doesn’t rank in the top 20 in the league in minutes played for the season, as a result of sitting out three games already this season, and we are sure there are more to follow.

The experiment is this…what is better for the athlete, reducing minutes on a nightly basis, or having the player just not play on certain nights. That way, he doesn’t warm up, doesn’t get mentally prepared to play. It’s just a complete day off.

We understand that Tyronn Lue has said all along that a reduction in James’ minutes would occur in January and February when the schedule got a little contracted, but on this current trip, the least minutes in a game for #23 was the 35 he played in Brooklyn on the first game on the roadie.

Right now, James doesn’t show any signs of fatigue and the guy is obviously a physical freak. He doesn’t seem to get tired, even at the end of games.

While San Antonio is famous for starting the concept of giving players game days off, sitting Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili when the schedule got heavy, Gregg Popovich also cut the players minutes per game.

At age 32, Duncan played 32.7 minutes per night, while at the same ages, Parker played 28.7 and Ginobili also spent 28.7 minutes on the floor per game.

Obviously, the goal is to have James fresh through the middle of June as the wine and gold defend their championship. The concern is with The King getting older, can he take on the heavier minutes per night, and still be his dominant self throughout the playoffs.

We are sure there are constant conversations with Lue, James, and the training staff about how the player feels, and the organization has done studies on what is the proper way to keep a high caliber NBA athlete fresh after they have reached the age of 30.

We also know that LeBron James doesn’t care about chasing a regular season win record. He understands the ultimate prize is winning another title, and he knows the most important thing is to be healthy and strong in April, May, and June.

We should have learned by now that comparing LeBron James to other athletes doesn’t make sense. He is a freak of nature. As someone once said about guarding him, “if you are big enough, you aren’t quick enough, and if you are quick enough, you aren’t big enough”.

We also believe the Cavs will have the first overall seed in the East wrapped up sooner than they did this year, which should mean a lesser load for James toward the end of the year.

That should get James some fresher legs heading into the post-season.

If James appears tired in the playoffs, then the Cavaliers will have to adjust their plan going into next season. However, if he is dominant through the last game of the season, then it will be even more evidence that The King is incomparable.

Griffin Is Cavs’ Not So Secret Weapon

Cavaliers’ GM David Griffin must be a magician. There isn’t any other explanation for the moves he makes to improve his basketball team.

Over the summer, when the Chicago Bulls signed Dwyane Wade as a free agent, Griffin slid in and took Mike Dunleavy off their hands to add to the wine and gold’s array of shooters.

Dunleavy, now 36 years old, saw his three point shooting numbers (the main reason the Cavs wanted him) decline from around 40% over the last five years, to 35% this year.

Tyronn Lue lost confidence in the veteran and over the last couple of weeks, he barely saw any time on the court, partially because he was battling an ankle injury.

Add in JR Smith being lost to the team until March with a broken thumb, and you needed to add another outside shooter to back up point guard and a serviceable big man to the list of needs for the defending champions.

So, what does Griffin do? He deals for one of the best three point shooters in history in Kyle Korver, and moves Dunleavy in the deal along with Mo Williams, who isn’t even playing right now.

He swapped his first round pick in 2017 to Portland to get back the Cavs’ first rounder in ’18 to get around the rule you can’t trade first rounders in consecutive years, so he could deal his first pick in 2019 to the Hawks as part of the deal.

The Cavs payroll and luxury tax bill actually goes down with this trade, and it allow Cleveland to add a player, probably a point guard, because they now have an open roster spot.

Talk about a win-win scenario.

As for Korver, yes he has declined since he was an all-star in 2015, when he averaged 12.1 points per night and shot a league high 49.2% from behind the arc. He’s averaging 9.5 points and shooting 41% from three point range this year.

But remember this. When the Cavs played Atlanta in the playoffs each of the last two seasons, David Blatt and Lue made it a priority to keep Korver under control. They felt he was the Hawks’ game changer.

And now he plays for the Cavaliers.

Korver will turn 36 in March, thus joining the veteran bench club with Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye, and he was averaging 28 minutes per night with Atlanta.

We would expect those minutes will be reduced here, and perhaps with less of a workload, Korver’s shooting efficiency will return to the levels he attained from 2011-12 through 2014-15, when the lowest he shot from distance was 43.5%.

He is hitting almost 50% of his shots from 16 feet to the three point line, and knocking down 52% of his threes from the corner.

The guy can flat out shoot the rock. And with LeBron James and Kyrie Irving’s ability to breakdown defenses and get to the hole, well, we all saw the results last May and June.

With the open roster spot, we would anticipate a complimentary move from Griffin to add a veteran back up point guard soon.

Kay Felder has shown flashes, but we will repeat, when you a competing for a title, you can’t expect a rookie to be a major contributor. Felder looks like he can play, and will see more time next year and years to come, but Lue doesn’t want to have to rely on him in a playoff situation.

The Cavs are sailing right now at 27-8, the top record in the Eastern Conference. But David Griffin sees the bigger picture. He saw a way to improve this team and went out and got it done.

That’s what the great GMs in sports do. They are proactive, not reactive. Because if you are the latter, when you make a move, it might be too late.

2016: Memories Of A Winning Year in NE Ohio.

It is easy to be upbeat about sports in the city of Cleveland and throughout northeast Ohio these days, a contrast from, oh, let’s say the last half century.

That’s what a professional sports championship does for an area. Instead of talking and writing about what a team needs to do to win, we can celebrate and bask in the glow of having that feeling a fan can have when the squad they follow has already won.

That’s why June 19, 2016 will forever be a special date to a Cleveland sports fan. It’s the date 52 years of waiting for a winner ended.

And to think, just 4-1/2 months later, we almost got to experience that kind of joy again, when Rajai Davis tied Game 7 of the World Series with a home run. Unfortunately, a rain delay got in the way of the Indians attempt to copy the Cavaliers’ title, and they fell one inning short of winning the World Series.

That’s what 2016 was all about in a nutshell.

We doubt that 20 years from now, we will remember the Browns going 1-15 (maybe). But we will forever remember Kyrie Irving’s three pointer to give the wine and gold the lead they would never relinquish.

We will not forget the Golden State shot missing and LeBron James and Kevin Love looking at each other under the basket, realizing they were NBA Champions.

It still gives us a chill when we hear the words “NBA Champion Cleveland Cavaliers”.

For many years to come, James, Irving, Love and the rest of the Cavs will be heroes in this area. And when they are all retired and they come back in 2026 for the 10th anniversary of the title, they will still get a standing ovation.

And it was very cool when the newly crowned Cavs jumped on board the Tribe train throughout the playoffs and World Series, showing a bunch of younger sports fans that the Indians can be cool too. If LeBron and the Cavs thought so, then it was alright.

The Tribe started developing their own heroes too. People started recognizing the play of the city’s next superstar in Francisco Lindor and fell in love with Jose Ramirez. And don’t forget the impact Adam Miller had either.

Suddenly, folks started realizing that the only name they knew on the local baseball team wasn’t the manager. Although, Tito has one name status along the shores of Lake Erie.

After the Cavs victory, the area was in party mode all week. We finally had a victory parade downtown and many people who grew up here returned for that event, something they thought might never happen in their lifetime.

The Lake Erie Monsters won the AHL Calder Cup for the first time since 1964. Stipe Miocic won the UFC heavyweight championship and defended his title for the first time right here in Cleveland.

LeBron James was named Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year for 2016, and is also AP’s Male Athlete of the Year.

The Indians signed a big, big time free agent in slugger Edwin Encarnacion, arguably the best power hitter in baseball over the last five years.

And although the Browns’ season was forgettable, with just one victory to date (and hopefully no more), they may emerge with the chance to have the first overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft.

Hopefully, we will never experience this kind of drought when in comes to winning again. 52 years is way too long.

Let’s hope this is the beginning of a new era in Cleveland sports. One where we win a bunch of times. We can all get used to that feeling.

Cavs Allow Fans Some Relaxation

Usually for a Cleveland sports fan, there is worry, concern, and angst in following your team.

Maybe the lack of that worries you, because you are a product of following sports in northeast Ohio, but this NBA basketball has an odd sense of calm to it.

Right now, the Cavaliers are off to a great start, winning 13 of their first 15 games, and already are four games ahead in the loss column in the NBA Eastern Conference standing.

Barring any sort of health related problems, probably the next time any basketball fan will have any concern is when the playoffs get underway, and even then, perhaps not until the Eastern Conference finals.

That’s how good this Cavs team is, and winning that title last spring and experiencing that run together has freed them up to play seemingly even better to this point in the season.

A full training camp with Tyronn Lue has the wine and gold ticking like a Swiss watch. Kevin Love, the reigning Eastern Conference player of the week, is playing like he did with the Timberwolves, averaging more than 20 points per night and grabbing more than 10 rebounds.

The other thing that has to strike fans is the closeness of this group and the fun they seem to have together.

They attended the Indians’ post-season games together, they have an annual Halloween party, they stopped off to watch the Ohio State-Michigan game a few days ago.

Maybe all of that is done because LeBron James says it needs to happen, but the rest of the squad is following their leader, and that has to help when it comes down to crunch time in games. They trust each other and they trust their coach.

Yes, LeBron is playing more minutes than we all expected, but Lue has told us the plan is to give James more rest when the schedule gets heavy in January and February. His minutes will go down then, and there will probably be some days off as well.

There is no doubt or handwringing from the fans and sports talk hosts around town. The Cavs won, so we believe in what they tell us.

Outside of the game they lost in Indiana when James sat out, this team rolls on even if they are missing some of it’s cogs.

Channing Frye has tragically missed time due to deaths in his family. JR Smith missed some games with a sprained ankle. Last Sunday, both Frye and Iman Shumpert were out, the Cavs still won on the road.

Lue has also made everyone a part of the early success. Rookie Kay Felder has contributed. Jordan McRae has seen more time lately and played the entire fourth quarter of a game against Washington that was still in doubt.

Sunday, without Frye and Smith in a slump, Lue turned to veteran James Jones, who came in and knocked down two three pointers.

It is true that the Cavs have been home a lot thus far (10 of their 15 games have been at Quicken Loans Arena), so the schedule will get a little tougher coming up. However, that still doesn’t provide great concern.

And by the way, let the media keep chasing Golden State and the continuously preening Warriors. The Cavaliers will keep quietly going about their business, which is winning.

While their fans just sit back and enjoy the ride.