Getting To Finals Doesn’t Get Old

Let it soak in Cleveland.

It was anticipated since the start of the regular season that the Cavaliers would get back to The NBA Finals and have a chance to defend the title they won last June 19th.

And here we are after the Cavs dominated the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals, four games to one.

The only game Boston won, the wine and gold had a 21 point lead midway through the third quarter.

It was that much of a mismatch.

So, the Cavaliers, a downtrodden franchise since the Mark Price, Brad Daugherty, and Larry Nance era, is heading to their third consecutive trip to The Finals, and the fourth overall in franchise history.

All four of those squad contain a certain LeBron James, who became the most prolific scorer in league playoff history tonight.

As for James, he is making his seventh consecutive trip to The Finals and his eighth overall.

Just for comparison, Michael Jordan played for the NBA title six times.

The only players in NBA history who have played in more championship series are as follows:

Bill Russell                      12
Sam Jones                       11
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 10
Jerry West                        9
Magic Johnson                9
Tommy Heinsohn          9

That’s it. Three of those players played with those Celtic teams that dominated the late 50’s and 60’s. It’s incredible to ponder James’ greatness and to think he has now been to the ultimate series four times with two different franchises.

Of course, we know just getting to The Finals isn’t enough for James or the rest of the Cavaliers for that matter.

This is the rubber match against the Golden State Warriors, and unlike the great Celtic-Lakers’ rivalry in the 1980’s, we don’t think there is a lot of respect for each other.

Cleveland would love to win this match up, not only to repeat as champions, but also to give them bragging rights in this trilogy.

You have to feel good for two veterans making their first Finals appearance in Deron Williams and Kyle Korver, both of whom joined the Cavs during the season.

Williams has been in the league for 12 seasons, made the All Star team five times, and played on the US Olympic team. The closest he got previously was in his second NBA season when the Jazz lost to San Antonio in the Western Conference Finals.

Korver was swept out of the playoffs the last two seasons by the Cavaliers, giving new meaning to the “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” saying.

He got to the conference finals twice, losing as a member of the Chicago Bulls in 2010-11 and with the Hawks in 2014-15. Both times, he lost to a team featuring LeBron James.

Be ready for a national media blitz extoling the virtues of the Golden State Warriors and how they cannot be beaten. They aren’t unbeatable.

That doesn’t mean we are expecting a Cavalier victory, but we are saying if the wine and gold execute their game plan, they can beat the Warriors again.

Remember, the Western Conference Finals were played with San Antonio missing one of the top five players in the NBA in Kawhi Leonard. The Spurs would have trouble beating Toronto or Boston in a seven game series without Leonard.

These are the halcyon days for the Cleveland Cavaliers. As James himself said after last night’s win, don’t take this for granted. After all, before James came back to the team, it had only happened once.

Was Cavs’ Defense Better Than You Think Vs. Pacers?

The Cleveland Cavaliers wrapped up another first round sweep in the NBA Playoffs, taking care of the Indiana Pacers in just four games.

It was the 10th sweep in LeBron James’ great career and he has now won 21 consecutive first round games.

The Cavs had defensive issues throughout the regular season and the analytics had Tyronn Lue’s squad as the third worst in defensive efficiency in the four game sweep.

Statistics have the Pacers having the shortest distance per field goal attempt of the 16 playoff teams, showing Indiana didn’t have much of an issue getting into the paint.

On the other hand the wine and gold’s field goal percentage against ranked in the bottom of the top half (7th) of the teams that qualified for the playoffs.

Cleveland did some good things against the Pacers, though.

Although Paul George averaged 28.0 points per game in the sweep, he did it by volume shooting. A 46% shooter in the regular season, the Pacers’ star shot just 38.6% against the Cavaliers, as Lue threw several defenders at George, including JR Smith, Iman Shumpert, with James helping on double teams.

And the All Star really struggled from the middle of game three throughout the completion of the series.

The other player the coach mentioned in terms of limiting before the series was C. J. Miles, who torched the Cavs in the regular season for 17.0 points per contest.

Miles was stifled by the Cavaliers, scoring just 7.3 points per game in the series, and he shot just 31% from three point range.

Lue’s defensive philosophy is to identify the opponent’s strengths and try to take them away. It seems he did just that against the Pacers in this series.

In order to do that, the coach is willing to give something up, and to this point, it’s hard to argue with his success.

So basically, if the Pacers were going to emerge victorious, it was going to have to be because Jeff Teague, Thaddeus Young, Myles Turner, and Lance Stephenson had huge performances.

Those four combined for 56 points per game on 49% shooting.

However, out of those four players, only Stephenson, who played only six games for Indiana this season, has the personality to be the lead dog. The rest are complementary players, forced into a big spot.

Not everybody can handle that situation.

That’s Lue’s philosophy, but opposing players into situations that they aren’t comfortable in.

As the playoffs go on, it will be more difficult to do this because the better teams have better options and more players capable of producing under the bright lights of the post-season.

Luckily for the Cavs, they have veterans who have stepped up in these situations throughout their careers. Channing Frye was huge a year ago for the Cavs. Two years ago against Atlanta on the road, the wine and gold won because Smith got hot in game one.

One of the new veterans acquired by GM David Griffin had a huge impact in this series, and that is Deron Williams.

Williams seemed to not be sure of how he fit when he first arrived in Cleveland, but he gave Lue some very good minutes in the second half of game three and in the second quarter of the deciding game.

There is no question that Cavs can be better on defense than they were vs. the Pacers, but they did accomplish some of the things they set out to do in the series. That’s something to watch in round two.

Trust In Cavs’ Playoff Hopes Are Based On LeBron

Since the first of March, we don’t know what to make of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

They went through that month sleepwalking on defense for the most part, and their three point shooting, a staple of their offense, began to get hit or miss.

Then, last Wednesday, they hammered the Boston Celtics, their rivals for the best record in the Eastern Conference during the regular season, in Boston no less, and it looked like they were on the right track.

But Friday night, the wine and gold was basically run off their home floor by an Atlanta Hawks’ team that gave their starters the night off.

It was similar to a year ago when Memphis was without many of their regulars and knocked off Cleveland at Quicken Loans Arena.

After the game, Kyrie Irving revealed that his knee was very sore on Thursday, yet Tyronn Lue played him Friday with a two game lead in the Conference standings.

Tristan Thompson is already out of the lineup with a sprained thumb, and Kyle Korver has missed several games recently with a foot issue.

Put all these factors together, and it doesn’t seem like it’s the formula for defending the NBA title the Cavs won last June.

In fact, there is only one reason for optimism. LeBron James plays for the Cavaliers.

Yes, you can talk about Russell Westbrook and James Harden for MVP, and we know Stephen Curry has won the award the last two seasons, but everyone knows that James is still the best player in the sport, and still its most dominant force.

For all of the talk about how Cleveland came back from a 3-1 deficit against the Warriors a year ago because Curry was banged up, Andrew Bogut was hurt, and Draymond Green was suspended for Game 5, no one talks about how James took that same Warriors’ squad to six games the year before without Irving and Kevin Love.

With Matthew Dellavedova and Thompson as his primary wingmen, he actually had the Cavaliers with a 2-1 lead in the series.

So despite the Cavs’ struggles over the last six weeks, we pin our hopes on James. And quite frankly, he’s earned that respect.

Lue should be called into question for some of the struggles. He has played James too many minutes, and Irving too, which many be a reason for his sore knees.

And after integrating the new players seamlessly a year ago, Deron Williams still seems lost, and Derrick Williams, who played well when he first came to Cleveland seems to be a forgotten man.

Deron Williams seems to defer way too much to LeBron and Irving. Let him do what he has done throughout his career, run the offense. He’s not a good defender anymore, but he is almost in a shooting role, and he’s not making shots.

The bench has been struggling lately, and it has been missing youth and athleticism, both of which Derrick Williams can provide. And he showed he could defend when he arrived on the north coast.

Lue needs to give him some minutes, probably at the expense of Iman Shumpert, but with a lot of age on the bench, maybe just use the extra body and play the 30+ year olds a few minutes less per game.

A win on Friday night and a win today in Atlanta would have allowed Lue to rest his key players until the playoffs begin next weekend.

The most important thing for the post-season run is having James, Irving, and Thompson rested and ready to go. We would include Kevin Love too, but he missed six weeks recently and probably needs the court time.

Pinning hopes on James is a tried and true method of winning, and based on recent events, it’s the only hope fans should be putting any credence in.

Griffin The Magician.

When JR Smith went down with his thumb injury around the beginning of the year, the depth of the Cleveland Cavaliers took a serious hit.

Coach Tyronn Lue was really only using three or four (depending on the day) players off his bench anyway, so he tried putting DeAndre Liggins into the starting lineup so he could still use Iman Shumpert, Richard Jefferson, and Channing Frye off the bench.

Unfortunately, opposing teams discovered Liggins can’t make an outside shot and they quickly left him alone, which allows them to close the driving lanes for LeBron James and Kyrie Irving.

So, Lue adjusted and moved Shumpert into the starting lineup, but it left a gaping hole on the wine and gold’s bench.

And with the short bench, James and Irving were forced to play more minutes than we are sure both the players and the coach would have liked.

Then, GM David Griffin sprung into action as he has each of the last two years.

First, he trading struggling outside shooter Mike Dunleavy to Atlanta and brought in Kyle Korver to replace Smith’s outside marksmanship. And unbelievably, Griffin saved salary cap money in this move.

Korver’s shooting accuracy has declined since his all-star season in 2015, but Griffin correctly thought it was just a slump and Korver has hit 50% of his three point shots since arriving in Cleveland.

A few weeks ago, he signed Derrick Williams, the guy picked right after Irving in 2011, as a free agent after he was released by Miami.

Williams is a tweener, not big enough to play exclusively at power forward and not quick enough to play exclusively at small forward. However, in today’s NBA, Williams can be an effective bench player, which he has been here, averaging 10 points per game in the seven games with the Cavs.

Plus, Lue is also giving him tough defensive assignments too. He guarded Derrick Rose against the Knicks and Jimmy Butler vs. the Bulls. His length and quickness are perfect for Cleveland on the defensive end.

It’s still a small sample size, but the early returns look like Williams can be an asset for the Cavs.

Yesterday, Griffin added another piece to the bench by signing veteran Deron Williams after he was released by Dallas. Williams is a three time all star and played with James and Kevin Love on the 2012 US Olympic team.

Williams should ease the ball handling/play making role that seems to be solely on James and Irving. He played 40 games with the Mavericks this year, averaging 13 points and 7 assists in 29 minutes per night.

You have to think Williams can be very effective in less minutes and also surrounded by James, Irving and the rest of the Cavs. His presence should allow those two to play less minutes through the end of the season.

And it also seems likely that Griffin will add another big man, possibly Andrew Bogut, to the bench, perhaps as early as next week.

The price for all these additions? Dunleavy and a first round draft pick.

Griffin also kept Cedi Osman, a Turkish player whom Cleveland has the rights to, and supposedly can play.

Lue and James are the other keys to these moves. The organization has shown a tremendous ability to integrate new players quickly and seamlessly. That’s a tribute to how they run the locker room.

The Cavs may just have the deepest roster in the league right now, particularly when Love and Smith are healthy. That should be huge as the season goes down the stretch and heads into the playoffs.

Can Griffin pull another Larry O’Brien Trophy out of his hat for his next trick?

Cavs Defense Improvement Linked to Kyrie

Cavaliers’ coach Byron Scott is perplexed by his team’s defense. He talks about it to the media after every game, and you have to assume he addresses it in practice to his young team.

What has been a constant for the Cavs since Scott took over, is their lack of defending the three-point shot.

As more and more teams make this shot a part of their daily arsenal, the weakness in this area gets more and more glaring.

Last year, the wine and gold ranked 7th from the bottom in the NBA in stopping the long-range shot.

To be fair, a number of playoff teams ranked in the bottom ten, including the champion Heat. However, those teams had great success in defending the two point attempts.

The only teams with worse three-point defense than Cleveland and worse overall field goal percentage against were the Nets and the Bobcats, the league’s worst team.

The year before, Scott’s first year at the helm, his team was the worst in stopping the three pointer, allowing a whopping 41.1% of those shot to go in.

Granted, the Cavs were in transition after LeBron James left for Miami, but clearly the way Cleveland approached the long-range shot defensively wasn’t very effective.

This year, after eight games, the Cavaliers have improved their defense against the three-point shot, but it appears to be at the expense of defending any other field goal attempt.

Opponents are shooting over 50% for the season against the wine and gold, a shocking figure in today’s NBA.

Clearly, something is amiss and it needs to be fixed right away, starting with Saturday night’s game against the Mavericks.

The key to the defense rests with the team’s best player, Kyrie Irving. He simply has to stay in front of opposing point guards.

On the road, Irving played well offensively, but he struggled defending Russell Westbrook and Deron Williams. Allowing penetration breaks down any defensive concept Scott wants to put in place.

The other problem has been the lack of a shot blocker. Tristan Thompson simply has to do better in protecting the rim, that’s his responsibility.

Anderson Varejao is a good defensive player, but he’s not a shot blocker. Perhaps when Tyler Zeller gets back, he can be the big body this team needs to play interior defense.

Without that shot blocker behind you, it is incumbent on the smaller guys to contain their man, making sure they keep a body between the opponent and the basket. And that means everyone!

If one player breaks down and allows his man to get by, it breaks down the entire defensive philosophy.

That’s the problem Scott and his staff have right now.

And until it changes and everyone picks up the gauntlet and plays solid defense, the Cavs are going to have problems winning basketball games.

We understand that this is a young team, and they are still trying to learn to play acceptable defense.

That’s why the team’s best player, Irving, has to set the tone. If he can stop his man, the Cavs’ defense will get better immediately.