Punishment Should Be Tougher For Playoff Cheap Shots

The NBA has a problem with dirty play in the playoffs, and we in Cleveland, have seen first hand that there is one.

Look, we are not talking here about physical play. The league has homogenized itself and the “hard” fouls of the 70’s and 80’s aren’t present anymore.

Can you imagine what would have happened to Kevin McHale today, when he clotheslined Laker forward Kurt Rambis driving to the basket in the 1984 Finals? He would have been given a Flagrant II foul (we love the roman numerals the league uses here), been ejected, and probably suspended for at least one more game.

Instead, the Celtics won in seven games.

The difference back then is the players in those days were sending a message. There were going to be no easy points to be had. The Pistons of the late 80’s and early 90’s, led by Bill Laimbeer and Rick Mahorn, kind of started the gratuitous violence, the cheap shot plays that have now been outlawed.

We in Cleveland can all remember Mahorn’s elbow to Mark Price’s head in 1989, which ruined the Cavs chance at winning the Eastern Conference championship that year. Cleveland was 41-12 heading into that contest. They were 16-15 the balance on the season.

Now back to the league’s problem. In game four of the first round series against Boston, we are all familiar with Kelly Olynyk’s dislocating the shoulder of Kevin Love. Love is out for the playoffs, likely missing his first appearance in the NBA Finals.

Olynyk received a one game suspension, to be served on opening night of the 2015-16 season. That’s not really a big price. The Celts were already down 3-0 in the series, so what consequence was there for any Boston player? They were done.

In the next series, against the Chicago Bulls, there was another cheap shot in the game that decided the series. With the Cavaliers up 3-2, Bulls forward Nikola Mirotic clotheslined Cavs’ guard Iman Shumpert as he was driving past him. Mirotic wasn’t ejected for the play.

Again, even if he had been kicked out of the game, what’s the real penalty here. Shumpert’s squad was advancing, and he could have missed a game or two (he didn’t) because of Mirotic’s play. If he was assessed a flagrant foul, he likely would have missed the Bulls’ opener this fall. Big deal.

In both cases, what is the risk for the team that is going home? None, absolutely none.

Olynyk’s foul put Love out of the post-season, and Shumpert could have been seriously hurt as well, missing time in the playoffs. The penalty should be much tougher for the player committing the act.

Would either player have done the same thing is he knew a 10 game suspension was at stake? Would a coach condone that type of play knowing he would lose a player for that amount of time?

Not likely. This is where the “brotherhood” Al Horford talked about should be focused on, not players making hustle plays.

We write this because tomorrow night is another night where the Cavaliers are playing a game that can eliminate their opponent. WIth tensions running high because of Horford’s ejection last night, it would not be surprising for the Hawks to send a cheap shot toward a Cavaliers’ player.

To prevent stuff like this, the NBA must enact tougher policies on these types of plays. Before another key player on any team, not just the Cavs ends up missing the balance of the playoffs, just like the player who is delivering the blow.

Cavs Need to Show Some Greed.

An impressive defensive performance in the second half and J.R. Smith’s hot shooting gave the Cleveland Cavaliers a huge road win last night, as they defeated the Atlanta Hawks 97-89.

The Cavs wrested home court advantage from Mike Budenholzer’s squad with Game 2 taking place Friday night in Atlanta.

David Blatt’s team needs to get greedy and not settle for the split on the road, because they can drive a stake in the collective hearts of the Hawks with a victory tomorrow night.

Remember, the Bulls didn’t have that greed in the conference semi-finals, losing in the second game in a blowout. Our guess is that LeBron James will not let his teammates get complacent.

There has been some discussion as to whether or not Kyrie Irving, who seemed to aggravate his sore knee last night should play in the second game of the series so he can get healthy.

We see that point, but if the medical staff determines that Irving cannot hurt himself more by going out there, Irving should be out there again tomorrow.

As we once read, nothing is given, everything is earned.

If Irving were to sit out, it could send a message that the coaching staff is fine with the split in the Peachtree State, instead of showing a preference to get this series over as soon as possible.

Unless something shows up in an examination between games, Irving has tendonitis in his knees, so it’s just a matter of playing with the pain. Having an extra two days off, won’t help once he starts playing again.

There were five days off between ending the Chicago series and last night’s game, and once Irving started playing, the pain and discomfort returned.

Besides, it wasn’t as though Irving wasn’t effective when he was in there. Yes, he did have problems keeping Jeff Teague and Dennis Schroder out of the paint, but he also had 10 points and six assists, and hit two big hoops when LeBron James was hobbled after turning an ankle.

We aren’t saying this is going to happen, but if Cleveland wins in Game 2, they are set up very nicely for a sweep, which would end the series next Tuesday night in Cleveland.

Since The Finals are slated to begin on June 4th, that would give the Cavs more than a week to heal up the assorted injuries they currently are saddled with.

We don’t think the Cavs will take their foot off the gas one bit, and as evidence look at the end of the game, when Iman Shumpert wouldn’t even allow Teague to get a meaningless three-point shot off before time expired.

James even acknowledged this in a comment today, saying his team “is just as desperate as the Hawks are”, despite having a series lead.

This is the veteran LeBron. He understands there is no relaxing in the playoffs now, and every game has to be approached as another opportunity to squash the will of the opponent.

Was it a nice win? Yes. However, the Cavaliers haven’t won anything yet. They still need three more wins and make no mistake, the Hawks are a good team, and they will probably shoot better on Friday.

We don’t expect Smith to be that hot again tomorrow, but maybe it will be Shumpert, or maybe Matthew Dellavedova will make a shot. Or perhaps Irving plays like he did in Game 5 vs. Chicago.

James and Blatt have a foot on Atlanta’s throat. No time to let up now.

Thompson and Delly Fit Perfectly on This Year’s Cavaliers

It is fitting that two of the three players on the podium after last night’s series clinching win over the Chicago Bulls were Matthew Dellavedova and Tristan Thompson. After all, they contributed mightily to the Cleveland Cavaliers blowout victory in the Windy City.

Most of the press surrounding this year’s Cavs have fittingly been about the team’s “Big Three”, the triumvirate of LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love, all-stars who probably rank among the NBA’s top 25 players.

Then you have the three players who were acquired in trades in January: J.R. Smith, Iman Shumpert, and Timofey Mozgov, who contributed greatly from elevating the team from the .500 mark at the time of the deals into the team that had the best regular season record from the time of the trades until the end of the campaign.

No doubt they are primary reasons the wine and gold are one of the four teams remaining in the NBA playoffs.

Thompson and Dellavedova are the quintessential players who are perfect fits on good teams.

There are a bunch of NBA players who are good players on non-playoff rosters. Until this year, Evan Turner is the guy who fits that bill for us. They are stat compilers. On those teams, somebody has to take shots, score points, and grab rebounds. That doesn’t mean they are good players. They are just the best player on a bad team.

Some players have skill sets that don’t fit with bad teams.

Think about both Thompson and Dellavedova on last year’s Cavs team.

Thompson was highly criticized because of his lack of offensive game and that he wasn’t more of a shot blocker. Those were things the pre-LeBron Cavaliers needed. So much of the offense depended on Kyrie Irving, and since Thompson was the fourth overall pick in the draft, people felt he should be able to contribute on that end of the floor.

With the addition of James, Love, and Smith, Thompson no longer needs to score, and Mozgov takes the role of rim protector.

So, Thompson does what he does, which is provide energy and is a monster on the glass, exactly what this group needs. And he does it as at a high level. Those things are important on teams that are competing for a title.

As for Dellavedova, his ball handling is questionable, which made him a target for critics, especially because the guy he backs up might be the best dribbler in the league.

And if he was forced to play 30-35 minutes on a nightly basis, his warts, that is to say, the reason he wasn’t drafted, would show through.

But he doesn’t have to play those kind of minutes in Cleveland.

What Delly does do is play gritty defense on both point guards and shooting guards alike, and can stick the occasional three-point shot. He’s a solid passer, being able to find the open man. He’s added a penetration move this year which he caps off with a lob pass to Thompson or Mozgov for dunks.

Last year, when the Cavs were headed for the lottery, he was a guy that we wondered why he got the time he received from then head coach Mike Brown.

We get that coaches love him, he plays hard and defends. But a bad team needs more from the back up point guard.

Again, on a winning team, Delly fits perfectly.

If they left the Cavs and went to lottery teams, the fans in those cities would probably be disappointed by what they would get out of either player.

However, on a winning team, they possess skill sets that playoff teams need.

What a difference a year makes.

Blatt Can’t Win, No Matter What Happens

David Blatt is in a no win situation.

He knows it. It goes along with the territory when you are coaching the league’s best player in LeBron James.

When James’ team wins, he gets the credit, and when his team loses, the coach takes the blame. Not LeBron.

So, the big to-do about James waiving off the play Blatt was calling in the huddle before the game winning shot, is nothing. Blatt wanted James to be the inbounder, probably to find J.R. Smith, who knocked down three shots from beyond the arc to get the Cavaliers back in the game.

James said he wanted the shot, and the coach obliged.

That’s why Blatt made the comments about “picking up the tab” in his post-game press conference. James wanted the check and Blatt gave it to him. There’s nothing to the story.

We’ve heard many people refer to the movie “Hoosiers”, about this situation, and we admit we thought the same thing.

In the movie, Coach Norman Dale (Gene Hackman) was calling a play with the game on the line for another player, with his squad staring at the coach in disbelief. Hickory High’s star, Jimmy Chitwood, told the coach he would make it, and the play was changed.

No word whether or not Dale was skewered on Twitter the next day.

The other thing Blatt is being hammered about was trying to call a timeout when there were none to call.

We hate to tell people, but that’s on one of the assistant coaches. If you have ever coached at even the high school level, you know the head coach has assistants make sure he is aware of things like how many timeouts he has and the foul situation on individual players.

Our guess is that no one reminded Blatt the Cavs didn’t have any timeouts remaining.

And that’s not something he can say to the media and not sound like he is throwing someone under the bus.

And as usual, Blatt doesn’t get any credit for the wine and gold’s comeback from an 11 point deficit late in the quarter, and for the squad’s defensive effort in the fourth quarter which allowed Cleveland to have a five point lead with around two minutes left. That’s a 16 point swing.

Nor does he get credit for staying with Timofey Mozgov staying in the game in the fourth quarter because he was playing well. Blatt is a “feel” coach, and he played the hot hand, something he has done throughout the year.

As for the inbound play, we think James Jones, who was the trigger man on the play was a little too conservative and forced the use of at least one timeout. There appeared to be players open, but Jones didn’t want to make a mistake with a turnover.

It turned out, the refs forced the turnover anyway when they called an offensive foul on James, who was getting hit repeatedly by Derrick Rose and Mike Dunleavy Jr. when they were trapping James.

The point here isn’t to say Blatt is a perfect coach, but merely to point out that he is not a complete idiot either.

We have said from early in the season that Kevin Love and Blatt were the go-to guys whenever this basketball team had problems. And the national media is quick to point every flaw out because he’s an outsider in NBA circles. They don’t know him.

Yes, he’s arrogant. He’s confident in his ability to coach and win at any level.

He’s learning his way around the NBA and has become more humble at least to the media.

He just can’t win because of the situation. Just realize it’s a tough spot to be in.

Cavs Now Even, But It’s Going to Get Tougher

The Cleveland Cavaliers faced their first adversity of the NBA playoffs last night and passed with flying colors, evening up their Eastern Conference semifinal series at one game apiece with a 106-91 victory over the Chicago Bulls.

Obviously, when the Cavs win they get very good performances out of LeBron James and Kyrie Irving, and Game 2 was no exception.

James scored 33 points and had eight rebounds and five assists, while Irving put up 21 points with three assists in the win.

But with Kevin Love sidelined, David Blatt needs other players to step up. Iman Shumpert has done just that in both games, and last night, he hit several three-point shots early, finishing with 15 points and seven boards.

He has stepped up big time with J.R. Smith serving a two game suspension, and with Smith returning Friday night, perhaps Shumpert can continue to provide the long-range shooting that Love provided.

We believe for the wine and gold to win in this series, they need a good performance out of one of their three “old hands”, meaning James Jones, Mike Miller, or Shawn Marion.

Jones provided such a game Wednesday night, hitting five of nine from beyond the arc and scoring 17 points. He hit two big triples after the Bulls ran off 14 consecutive points in the third quarter to cut a 25 point lead down to 11.

The Bulls never got any closer.

Coaches can be stubborn, so Blatt should be commended for seeing that the Mike Miller as a starter experiment didn’t work, and going to Tristan Thompson to begin the game.

Thompson, who really fits the definition of a guy who is better on a good team that a bad one, scored only five points, but grabbed 12 rebounds, and as usual, kept several possessions alive by tracking down his teammates errant shots.

And you have to give credit to the much-maligned Matthew Dellavedova, who had nine points and nine assists.

However, now it’s on to the Windy City and without a doubt, those games will be a challenge. Marginal players are usually more productive at home, so the burden will be on James and Irving, to get the team off to a good start.

Shumpert, who left the game with a groin injury, hopefully can continue to contribute as he has over the last four games, and they will need Smith to come back from his suspension to pick up right where he left off.

If Smith can pick up right where he left off before the last two games, the Cavs will be able to spread the floor the same as when Love was playing because the Bulls will have to honor the ability of the two former Knicks to make long-range shots.

Because as much as last night’s game was about James’ aggressiveness, Shumpert’s first quarter shooting was equally a key. He provided the three-point shot that was missing in the first game.

The best case scenario is for the wine and gold to come out early like they did last night in Game 3, and take the Chicago fans out of the game. It would also show the Bulls that Monday night was the aberration.

James needs to be in aggressive mode again, because it doesn’t appear the Bulls have any answer for him in the paint.

The three-point shooting is key in this because making some shots from outside will open up the middle.

Without a doubt, this is a series now.

Who Needs To Step Up For Cavs in Round Two.

There was a cloud over the Cavaliers’ series clinching win over the Boston Celtics on Sunday, because of the shoulder injury to Kevin Love and the looming suspension of J.R. Smith.

So, when play resumes with the Eastern Conference semi-finals on Monday, the way the wine and gold play, and who they play will be quite different from the one that has rolled to 39 wins in their last 48 contests.

Losing two starters is definitely going to effect the Cavs, whether they want to admit it or not.

Both of the players help with floor spacing because of their abilities to make three-point shots. So, does David Blatt replace them with other players with that talent, or does he try to win a bit differently.

Many have speculated that James Jones may get the start in Love’s spot, and while Jones has the ability to fill it up from beyond the arc, he cannot rebound like Love and doesn’t have the bulk to defend near the basket.

To be sure, if Jones starts, he won’t get Love’s minutes, and without doubt we will see a lot of Timofey Mozgov and Tristan Thompson together on the floor.

Thompson is a better defender than Love, so perhaps the Cavs won’t need to score as much with that tandem on the court.

As for Smith, the logical move would be to move Iman Shumpert into the starting lineup, since that was probably how it was supposed to be before Smith fit like a glove along with the rest of the starters.

And although Smith played solid defense for Cleveland, Shumpert is better on that end of the floor, so again the gain will be when the Cavs don’t have the ball.

Then the question becomes who replaces Shumpert in his role? The obvious answer is veteran Mike Miller, another guy who can stretch the floor with the three-point shot, but he hasn’t been accurate all year-long, hitting just 32.7% from behind the line, compared to almost 41% for his career.

Or Blatt could choose to go with even more defense and put Shawn Marion out there.

Without a doubt, all three of the veterans picked up in the off-season (Jones, Miller, and Marion) are going to be counted on to be contributors in the next series, and really Kendrick Perkins can be added to this list.

Most figure the next opponent for Cleveland will be Chicago, based on no one ever losing a series once they have a 3-0 lead.

If that is true, it will be difficult for the Cavs to win without Love, no matter what kind of strong face the organization puts on the situation. Love was very important to the offense because of floor spacing. His ability to make shots from outside opened up driving lines for LeBron James and Kyrie Irving.

Can the Cavs still win? Of course, but they will need to get contributions from guys who haven’t given them much in the first round, meaning Miller, Marion, and Perkins.

They still have two of the league’s best players in James and Irving, and remember the Cavaliers advanced to two Eastern Conference finals and one NBA Finals with rosters not as talented as this one.

That’s the power of LeBron James.

And he plays for Cleveland.

Why Stevens Has Better Rep Than Blatt

One of the story lines in the first round playoff series between the Cavaliers and Celtics is the impact of the young, basketball genius coach of Boston, Brad Stevens.

This isn’t to say Stevens hasn’t earned his reputation as one of the game’s best young minds.

He took a mid major program in Butler, from the same league as Cleveland State, to the NCAA Tournament Championship game two years in a row, losing to Duke and Connecticut, two of the sports’ power programs.

That said, in the first loss by a 61-59 score to Coach K’s Blue Devils, Stevens had the best player on the floor in Gordon Hayward, who averaged 19.3 points per game for Utah this season.

Getting to two straight finals is a tremendous accomplishment to be sure, and to do it without multiple McDonald’s All American high school players shows Stevens did a great coaching job.

And he’s done a very good job this year in Boston. Let’s face it, there isn’t one player who starts for the Celtics that would start for the Cavs, yet, the Celts had the second best record in the Eastern Conference after the all-star game.

Only the Cavs were better.

So Stevens has done a tremendous job with limited talent of getting the most out of his talent and getting his players to buy in and play hard every night.

He’s made his teams over achieve.

We will never know that about David Blatt as long as he has LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love on the roster.

So, the narrative is that Stevens is a better coach, the boy wonder of basketball, and he will out scheme Blatt and keep his team in every game.

That’s not fair to Blatt.

Heck, for all we know, Stevens may be the heir apparent to Larry Brown as the best basketball mind in the country, but the comparison with Blatt isn’t a fair one because the Cavs’ coach has the talent, and hopefully (for fans and Blatt alike), we will never find out what kind of record he could squeeze out of the Boston roster.

And when you coach a very talented team, it is very difficult to get credit, or be considered a coaching genius.

Gregg Popovich gets a ton of credit because of the way the San Antonio Spurs play, and because people refuse to acknowledge that Tim Duncan is one of the game’s all time greats. And Popovich has gotten a lot out of guys cast aside by other teams, like Boris Diaw, Danny Green, etc.

We have always “pooh-poohed” Phil Jackson’s coaching greatness because he never coached a team that didn’t have a great player on it. All of his title teams had Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, and/or Kobe Bryant on the roster.

Blatt will never get any credit for the Cavaliers being successful because LeBron James is on the team, and he’s still the best player in the league.

Perhaps if he had the team he was hired to coach (no James, no Love) and guided the wine and gold to the playoffs, he would have the reputation as a great coach. But he didn’t. That doesn’t make him a coach who isn’t competent, it just makes him fortunate.

Even if the Cavaliers win a title this summer, the credit will go to the players. And the only credit David Blatt will get will be that he didn’t screw it up.

Now Is Blatt’s Time to Show His Stuff

The Cleveland Cavaliers ended their regular season last night and it truly was a tale of two halves of the season.

As everyone is aware, the Cavs struggled to get going. LeBron James was banged up and needed to rest his body, while the team got off to a 19-20 start.

When James returned, GM David Griffin sprung into action, revamping the roster with two major trades, and the wine and gold closed out the second half with a 34-9 record.

David Blatt has had his share of critics, both from the national media (who love to pick the Cavaliers apart), and also from the local media, who don’t seem to care for his arrogance, something you probably have to have if you are going to coach elite players.

But Blatt should get enormous credit for fitting in the new pieces, Timofey Mozgov, J.R. Smith, and Iman Shumpert, seamlessly. Many times, basketball teams make personnel moves and it takes time for the pieces to fit together and play well together.

Just think back to when the Cavs made a mega-move at the trading deadline in 2008, bringing in Ben Wallace, Delonte West, Joe Smith, and Wally Szczerbiak.

The Cavs were 30-24 at the time of the deal, and finished the season with a 45-37 record. They were basically a .500 team after the deal, and lost in the second round of the playoffs to Boston.

This Cleveland team hit the ground running after the deal, which is a credit to the head coach, the GM, who found the perfect pieces to fit this squad, and the players who made their new teammates feel at home.

Most felt the key to the moves was Shumpert, an active wing defender the Cavs desperately needed. But he was still hurt when he arrived here, which allowed Blatt to use Smith in the starting lineup.

The much maligned Smith fit like a glove, providing instant offense, knocking down open three after open three, playing off James and Kyrie Irving perfectly.

And Smith was active on the defensive end too, which allowed Blatt to give him more freedom on offense.

No one could have seen the huge impact Smith made on this team, and when Shumpert was healthy, Blatt kept things exactly how they were, and Shumpert came off the bench, where he has been very valuable to the Cavaliers.

However, playoff time is where Blatt will make his bones. And it starts right away, as he is matched up against one of the sports’ up and coming coaches in Boston’s Brad Stevens.

The Cavs have a decided talent advantage in the first round, but what we are looking for is how Blatt reacts and counters what other teams are going to do to keep the wine and gold at bay.

This isn’t to say Blatt isn’t capable of doing just that. He’s had success overseas in tournament play, but we are looking forward to seeing how he manages the playoff situation.

And it becomes more of a factor as the playoffs go on. Remember that Mike Brown could never figure out what Orlando was doing in the Eastern Conference finals in 2008-09. He never tried anything different or couldn’t come up with a counter.

Playing the same team a possible seven straight times brings the ability to scheme and coach into the forefront. David Blatt’s time to shine is right now. The playoffs start Sunday afternoon.

Why Mozgov Doesn’t Get Fourth Quarter Minutes.

Since the Cleveland Cavaliers had the audacity to lose a basketball game Friday night, even though it was to the team with the best record in the Eastern Conference, and it was on the road, of course the critics of David Blatt were out in full force.

Did we mention that the loss was also in the midst of a four games in five nights stretch and the Cavs won three of those games?

We constantly point out that when the Cavs do lose, it is the fault of either of two people, and sometimes both. Those people was Blatt and Kevin Love.

The criticism on Friday night was the lack of fourth quarter playing time for Timofey Mozgov.

The reason has everything to do with defensive match ups, and Blatt is no different from most NBA coaches in this respect.

He matches up defensively, particularly late in games, and that’s why Mozgov doesn’t see the court a lot at the end of the game.

It also has everything to do with the style of today’s NBA.

Most teams no longer have legitimate low post centers, instead, they favor guys who can get out on the floor and spread out the court. That is not the big Russian’s strength as a player.

The last thing Blatt and his staff want is for their center to get caught 15 feet away from the basket and have the opposition get point-blank lay ups or dunks.

So, the more effective defensive line up at the end of games is to have Tristan Thompson at center, because he is able to defend better out on the floor.

For comparison, Toronto only plays Jonas Valenciunas, he of the tackling of LeBron James on Wednesday night, just 3.7 minutes per game in the fourth quarter.

Why? For the same reason that Mozgov doesn’t get fourth quarter minutes.

The other night, if Valenciunas would have played most of the fourth quarter against the Cavaliers, then Mozgov would have been out there too.

Another Eastern Conference center is in the same boat as Valenciunas and Mozgov, and that would be another traditional big man, Washington’s Marcin Gortat.

Wizard fans are wondering why he only averages 4.4 minutes in the final quarter of games. And it is the same issue for Washington coach Randy Wittman, he doesn’t like the match up problems against smaller, quicker bigs.

A player like Joakim Noah is sound enough and quick enough to be able to guard a player who can stay away from the basket, and so is a guy like Al Horford, but both of those players are really power forwards masquerading as centers.

And you can see that it isn’t just David Blatt’s decisions either. Most coaches feel the same way about having a 7 footer trying to guard someone playing 15 feet from the basket. The inner defensive coach in each one of them don’t want to big man guarding someone out there.

Last night against Phoenix, Mozgov did demonstrate the ability to be a force defensively even though he wasn’t guarding a legitimate low post big man, and perhaps it will earn him some minutes late in the game.

However, when push comes to shove, coaches will go with the match up that causes them the least heartburn on the defensive end. And that’s why Mozgov and other bigs can’t get on the floor in the fourth quarter.

Is This Most Talented Cavs’ Team Ever?

The Cleveland Cavaliers certainly haven’t had a glorious history. Their all-time record since joining the NBA is more than 300 games below .500.

However, they have been to the NBA Finals in 2007, and lost in the Eastern Conference finals three times. And without disrespecting the ’06-‘o7 conference champs, the best team in franchise history may just be the last wine and gold squad to fall one step short of The Finals, the 2008-09 team that one 66 games in the regular season.

That team is a regular on lists of the best teams to not win an NBA title.

Our feeling was that collection of players failed because of Mike Brown’s failure to adjust to what Orlando was doing offensively in the conference finals, and because of the playoff schedule.

If you recall, the Cavs swept each of their first two series against Detroit and Atlanta, and had to wait nine days, from May 11th when they eliminated the Hawks, until May 20th when they took on Orlando.

The Cavaliers were rusty in Game 1, losing on their home floor, where they lost just twice all season long.

By the way, that team won 18 of their last 21 games in the regular season.

Since the current Cavs have now won 16 of their last 18, we decided to compare the current roster to perhaps the best team in Cleveland professional basketball history.

The starters on that team were LeBron James, Mo Williams, Delonte West, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and Ben Wallace.

Anderson Varejao also started 42 games that season, getting the nod when Ilgauskas and Wallace had injuries. Sasha Pavlovic also started 12 games, mostly for West.

James, who was 24 at the time, averaged 28.4 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists per game, which is comparable to this season’s figures of 26 points, 6 boards, and 7 assists.

However, that team had no one who can compare to Kyrie Irving, who is blossoming into the superstar in front of our eyes. The fourth year player out of Duke is getting 22 points and five dimes per night as offensive option #2.

Williams filled that role in ’09, getting 18 points and four assists. Irving is taking more shots than Williams did, with both making almost 47% of their tries.

Ilgauskas was the team’s third leading scorer at 12.9 a game, with 7.5 boards and shooting 47%. Kevin Love is the third leading scorer this year at 16.8 points, with 10.3 rebounds. He is shooting just 43% from the floor, although he attempts far more three point shots than Big Z did.

That group’s bench was led by Varejao, Boobie Gibson, and Wally Szczerbiak, while the current Cavs use Tristan Thompson, Iman Shumpert, and Matthew Dellavedova as the primary bench options.

We would give David Blatt’s crew an edge because the second and third best players on this team are much better than those on the 66 win team.

Even the bench appears to be better. Varejao scored 8.6 points and 7.2 rebounds as the first big man off the bench in ’08-’09, and Thompson has better numbers at 9.1 and 8.4 respectively.

That group was stronger defensively, because Ilgauskas was still a force inside and Wallace was one of the best defensive players in NBA history up front, and West was a very good defender too.

However, the three Cavs who joined the team in January are helping greatly on the defensive end. Since Timofey Mozgov joined the squad, he has provided the inside presence Blatt’s team sorely needed. And Shumpert and J.R. Smith have given the wine and gold better defense on the wings.

Can this team go farther in the post-season than the ’09 team? That remains to be seen. But it is looking like this might be the most talented roster ever to play in Cleveland.

That’s how quickly things have changed in the last month or so.