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.

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.

Cavs’ Division Title a Symbol of How Far They Have Come

The Cleveland Cavaliers are the Central Division champions.

In the NBA, it isn’t a big deal to win your division title, it really just guarantees you home court advantage in your first round playoff match up. And remember, in pro basketball, more than half the teams qualify for the post-season.

In baseball and football, winning the division makes you stand out more, as less than 40% of the team make the playoffs.

That’s why the Cavs really didn’t celebrate clinching the division, it’s just a step toward their ultimate goal, which is the Larry O’Brien Trophy.

Still, it is a symbol of how far the franchise has come not only from last season, when they won 33 games, but also from earlier this season, when they were once 19-20.

Since then, catapulted by a win over the hapless Lakers, the wine and gold have ripped off 32 victories against just seven defeats. Had they played the entire season at such a pace, they would be rivaling Golden State for the league’s best record.

For Kyrie Irving, who is blossoming into one of the league’s best players before our very eyes, and Tristan Thompson, who spent the first three years of their NBA careers struggling to attain wins, it has to be very satisfying indeed.

Just think of the switch for them, from coming to the arena every night hoping for a win to now expecting a victory.

For Kevin Love, one of the league’s top players but stuck on bad teams, winning the Central is proof that making the sacrifices he had to make by playing with LeBron James and Irving made it all worthwhile.

We think about how lucky J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert have to feel. They started the year with high hopes, especially after beating Cleveland on opening night, but quickly the Knicks’ season feel into a deep abyss, perhaps the NBA’s worst team.

They both have to think they hit the lottery with both contributing to a team that has a chance to win a world championship.

Timofey Mosgov has to have the same feeling, coming from a team that will lose 50 games this year to another that has won 50. And he is the nightly recipient of lob passes from the league’s best players, and has the most alley-oop dunks since putting on a Cavs uniform.

James Jones has to look at the season as a rejuvenation of his career, playing more minutes than he has since the 2011-12 season. He produced when given a chance and became a guy who earned the trust of David Blatt.

As for Blatt, a man who was said to be clinging to his job when the Cavaliers dipped below the .500 mark, it is vindication. If nothing else, he should get credit for putting his new pieces of the puzzle together quickly. There wasn’t much of an adjustment period at all.

And for James, it is the first step in delivering what he said he wanted to do when he returning to Northeast Ohio. He wanted to bring a title to the seemingly sports cursed area.

He changed the culture of the locker room and prodded, pleaded, and taught Irving how to play winning basketball, not just put up numbers. There is no question that the strides made by Irving this season could not have come without the influence of the man who is still the best player on the planet.

So, although it is a small step, the organization should take pride in its accomplishment. After a struggle early on, the Cavaliers go into the playoffs as one of the hottest teams in the NBA.

It was a long bumpy ride to get to this point.

Cavs’ Success Has National Media Confused

We must have forgotten all of the crazy stuff that goes on when LeBron James is on your basketball team.

Early in the season, when the Cavaliers were struggling, it was easy for the media, both local and national, to find things to write about this basketball team.

The stories ranged from David Blatt being on the precipice of being fired, to James and/or Kevin Love opting out of their contracts after the 2014-15 season and heading to the free agent market.

When LeBron was in Miami, those stories simply didn’t exist about the Cavs, because no one cared about him.

There were even times when stories were dug up several weeks after the fact, such as Tristan Thompson turning down a huge contract extension.

Actually, Thompson turned it down before the second game of the season, right before the deadline to do such extensions, but it became a big story when the wine and gold was struggling.

Then, GM David Griffin made the deals which re-shaped the roster, and the basketball team starting winning. And winning a lot.

Last night’s demolition of Memphis gave Cleveland there 28th win in their last 34 games, a torrid pace to say the least.

Now, there wasn’t much controversial to concoct about this team.

Except for writing about the two scapegoats of the franchise, Blatt and Love.

We’ve been saying this for several weeks now, when the Cavaliers lose, you can bet the fans and media are blaming two people, the coach and the team’s starting power forward.

Local media people are always asking national types for the perception of Blatt, despite the fact that the last two times the wine and gold have had two days off and a solid practice, they posted impressive wins against Dallas and Memphis.

Why that doesn’t speak to Blatt’s ability and add how quickly the three new players fit in right away is a mystery.

However, he will no doubt be questioned until he wins the NBA title.

As for Love, without question he made the most sacrifices in his own game to come to Cleveland, and he will be rewarded with his first playoff appearance. He has consistently said he will be back with the Cavs next year, but that hasn’t stopped people (even Hall of Famer Alonzo Mourning has weighed in) from saying the former Timberwolf player can’t wait to get out.

And in the past few days, they have blown out of proportion his comments that he and James aren’t “best friends”, and he thought his former UCLA teammate, Russell Westbrook deserved consideration as MVP.

For all of the talk Love did about wanting to be on a winning team, he would look hypocritical if he left the Cavs left one season to go to the Lakers or Knicks, the two most talked about places he will wind up.

Really? That’s all they can come up with?

The point is things are running so smooth right now, that the national writers, who can’t fathom anyone would want to be in Cleveland, have to invent stories to try to disrupt the momentum of this basketball team.

To this point, it hasn’t bothered anyone.

To be sure, they thought J.R. Smith would do something crazy or wouldn’t fit in either, but he’s been a perfect fit here, and Blatt has called him a joy to coach.

It sounds like the players know right now that they have something special going on. They know the playoffs start very, very soon.

There’s Plenty of Time for Rest for Cavs’ Big Three

It never ceases to amaze us on the craziness of Cleveland as a sports city.

We guess until we finally win the coveted championship we’ve waited for over sixty years, it will not change.

Usually, the insanity revolves around the Cleveland Browns, but today’s piece is about the franchise that clinched a playoff spot last night, the Cavaliers.

Making the playoffs is a bit anti-climatic, since the Cavs have won 26 of their last 32 games, and since the hot streak started, we all knew they were going to make the post-season.

But the craziness is about resting the team’s best players: LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love.

Love missed the last two games of the last trip the team was on, sitting out against the Magic and Heat, and when it was reported that James missed the shoot around prior to yesterday’s contest vs. the Pacers, the argument started again.

There is no doubt James is sore at this time of year, but he shares that along with most of the sport’s players. He’s 30 years old, and to be sure his back and knees probably feel much older than that at this point in the season.

However, yesterday, he had a cold! Most of us go to work and perform our everyday functions with a cold. We take some medicine and go about our day.

There were those who said James should sit out, and there were even callers on local sports talk stations advocating that James sit out the rest of the season to have him completely healthy for the playoffs.

That is ridiculous, and those people probably don’t own a calendar.

The regular season ends on April 15th, which for you non-math majors is 25 days away. That would be almost four weeks.

Do we really want LeBron James going into the playoffs having sat for four weeks?

Remember the 2008-09 playoffs, when the Cavs vanquished both of their foes in the first two rounds of the playoffs in four games, and had to sit for a week waiting for Orlando to advance?

The Cavs got a little stale and lost game one at home, and could never regain the home court advantage, nor the momentum they had going after sweeping the first two rounds.

Plus, despite LeBron’s protests, it is better for David Blatt’s team to get the #2 seed in the East and have home court advantage for at least the first two rounds of the playoffs.

And with Chicago just 2-1/2 games behind and playing well as of late, the wine and gold still need to win some more contests.

The guess here is the Cavs can accomplish winning the division, thus clinching one of the top three seeds, probably #2 since Toronto is now three games back, with at least a week to spare.

That means Blatt can sit James, Irving, and Love for a full week if they all want to before the playoffs get underway. That would be plenty of time to ease their collective bumps and bruises.

Plus, after this three game trip to Milwaukee, Memphis, and Brooklyn, the Cavaliers will be at home for seven of their next nine games.

Included in those home games are contests against the Sixers, Celtics, and Pistons. If Blatt were to rest James in any of those games, it would be understandable.

Look we all want the Cavs to win the NBA title this year, but locking LeBron James in a vault for the rest of the regular season isn’t the answer either.

We trust James and Blatt to work together to get the league’s best player the rest he needs heading into the playoffs. Let’s not forget the wine and gold still need to win some games in the regular season too.

Forget the Numbers, Love is Still a Key Component

Every time the Cleveland Cavaliers lose a basketball game, the reaction from the fans on social media is predictable. Two people take the brunt of the blame.

It is either David Blatt’s fault, because that’s who we are in Cleveland, it’s always the coach’s fault. God forbid, we ever make the players responsible for a defeat.

The second person who gets hammered for a loss is Kevin Love. The only reason we can think of for this is that Love was apparently expected to average 25.0 points and 15 rebounds per game when GM David Griffin traded this year’s first overall pick, Andrew Wiggins and last year’s first overall pick, Anthony Bennett, along with other stuff to get the Timberwolves’ best player.

It’s not fair to Love, who certainly isn’t playing terrible, he’s averaging 17.1 points and 10.5 boards per contest. And most basketball people realize it was Love who had to make the biggest adjustment among the Cavs’ stars, certainly more than LeBron James and Kyrie Irving.

He is taking the least amount of shots since his second year in the league at 13.1 per game, down from the 18.5 he took per night with Minnesota a year ago. He’s also making less, hitting just 42.7% compared to his career mark of 45.1% with the Wolves. And his three-point accuracy is down slightly from his lifetime figure of 36.2% to 34.7%.

We have noticed that Love has been tentative in taking open shots at times, most notably in last Friday’s loss to Indiana which ended the wine and gold’s 12 game winning streak.

That and his decreased shooting percentage are the only problems we can find in the former UCLA star’s game.

There are some who think the Cavaliers would be better off with Tristan Thompson in the lineup instead of Love. They are showing a lack of understanding of basketball when making that statement.

The Clippers’ Doc Rivers said it correctly when talking about Love last week. You have to guard him. Even if he’s shooting for a lower percentage than his norm, defenses have to pay attention to him. And when he’s standing out around the third point line, opponents have to respect him, and that opens up driving lanes for Lebron James and Kyrie Irving.

That’s a key for the Cavaliers’ attack.

Conversely, Thompson doesn’t have to be guarded. He has to be kept off the offensive boards, where he is very effective, but most teams would be thrilled if the fourth year pro out of Texas would shoot anything beside a lay up or a dunk.

People who only look at the raw numbers only don’t understand this dynamic. Sometimes it is not what the player does, it’s what he is capable of doing that counts.

So, as long as Love is a threat, he is a very important piece of this Cavalier team.

It appears that Love realizes that his shot is off and he is putting time in to correct that. We also believe that James’ “fit out” comment had more to do with the tentative play of the former all-star. Love was told to be himself and not “fit in” during the preseason, and James sees him thinking too much and not playing his game.

In the meantime, just be patient. Love will regain his shooting touch, and when he does, this offense will be even better.

The Cavs are getting better on a game by game basis. Hopefully, that will continue well into the spring.

Cavs Are Improvising in Blatt’s Offense.

It has been said that basketball is to sports as jazz is to music.

The game has structure, but the players improvise, and they have to in order to be successful at it.

That’s why we think it is funny when we hear the Cleveland Cavaliers aren’t running the offense that coach David Blatt wants to run.

The wine and gold are getting more confident with Blatt’s system, which is designed to move the ball without a lot of dribbling, because we are seeing the passing game more and more each game. But the players still go back to one-on-one play from time to time.

Of course, that may be the coach’s compromise to the players, especially guys like LeBron James and Kyrie Irving who can probably break down the player guarding them at any point in the game.

Coaches want the players to be players, not robots. So, if a play is designed and the player sees someone open under the basket, good coaches want the man with the ball to make the right basketball play.

That was in evidence in the Cavs’ win over the Clippers a couple of weeks ago late in the game.

Blatt designed an inbound play late in overtime, with James as the inbounder. Apparently, the play was to get the ball to Kyrie Irving around the three-point line, so if someone was to be fouled, it would be the team’s best free throw shooter.

However, James saw Tristan Thompson break to the hoop, uncovered. So, we made the correct read and fired it to Thompson for a dunk, while being fouled. That’s what coaches want, break the play, especially if it leads to an easy hoop.

No coach wants to run set plays every time down the floor. It’s one way to get the players to carry a grudge against the guy in charge.

Of course, there are coaches who are control freaks and want to micro-manage everything their team does, but usually those coaches have a very short shelf life.

Most coaches probably don’t even want to call plays, because that would mean a lot of transition baskets, and their players would know where the ball should go and when it should move.

Take Wednesday’s win over Portland, which extended the Cavaliers’ winning streak to eight games. Irving was really the only player who had things going for Cleveland, and the coach and his teammates recognized that and got him the basketball.

The result was a 55 point night for the former first overall pick, and a win for the Cavs.

The previous game, only James and Irving were hitting shots vs. Detroit, so they carried the load.

To be sure, that wasn’t the coach’s design going into the game, but everyone adapted, and it led to a victory.

Blatt doesn’t want his team to have to depend on huge nights by his two all-stars to win every night, but right now, a few players are struggling to make shots (yes, Kevin Love is in a bit of a slump), so James and Irving are carrying the load. There is nothing wrong with that.

Tonight, perhaps J.R. Smith might get it going or Love can get hot, or Timofey Mozgov will be able to score inside, and the players will depend and feed off of them. That’s the kind of sport basketball is.

Early in the year, there was too much one on one play and too many players looking for their shots, and the offense struggled. That seems to be changing.

That means the Cavs are playing as a team, and selfishness is disappearing.

That’s a good thing and it could mean better things are yet to come.

Cavs Biggest Problems: Defense, Three Point Shooting

By the end of this week, the Cleveland Cavaliers will have played half of their NBA schedule, and no one thought they would be struggling this much.

They are currently sitting below the .500 mark at 19-20, far from the juggernaut many experts predicted before the season started with LeBron James returned to the team, and GM David Griffin traded for Kevin Love.

Yes, there are a lot of new players that started the season with the wine and gold, and the recent trades made by Griffin have added three more new players (one of whom, Iman Shumpert hasn’t played yet), and that makes continuity and knowing your teammates very difficult.

The biggest problems seem to be on the defensive end, where right now it appears there isn’t a consistent effort on a nightly basis.

Part of the problem is the lack of quickness on the players defending the perimeter. That problem means they play off of the opponent to stop penetration, and then cannot recover to contest the jump shot. This has led in part to allowing a 51.6% defensive field goal percentage thus far, second worst in the league behind only Minnesota.

It seems like teams hit an inordinate amount of three-point shots against the Cavs, but the wine and gold ranks 19th defensively against the long distance shot. That’s not great, but they are getting hurt inside the arc.

In terms of defensive efficiency, the Cavs rank as the sixth worst defense in the NBA. That needs to improve and quickly.

Yes, we understand that Love and Kyrie Irving aren’t good defensively, but you can cover that up by team concepts. Right now, the team scheme needs to be revamped because it’s not getting it done.

Cleveland allows the sixth most dunk attempts in the league, but don’t allow a lot of layup attempts. However, opponents convert a good percentage of those layup attempts, which Timofey Mozgov should help with.

Where the Cavs get killed is on jump shots of between 16 feet and the three-point line, as opponents are making 46.3% of their shots, two percent more than the next worst team Toronto. Besides the Raptors, no one else is giving up more than 42.6% of these shots.

That’s because the perimeter defenders are having a problem closing out on shooters.

Oddly, this ties into the other problem, the lack of three-point shooting. Cleveland ranks 18th in the NBA offensively, which is disappointing for a team with Irving, Love, Mike Miller, and James Jones on it. The thought before the season was with all the ability the Cavs have going to the basket, these guys would have plenty of good looks from beyond the arc.

Irving shot close to 40% in his first two years in the league, but shot just 36% last year and is sitting around that mark again this season.

Love came into the season hitting 36% of his shots from distance, but he’s dropped to 34% this season.

Miller has been over 40% each of the last three seasons, but he’s dropped to 35.3% in 2014-15.

Jones is a career 40% shooter that is making 36.8% of those shots this season.

The latter two are big problems because they don’t provide the perimeter defense the Cavs need, and they aren’t making as many shots as they have in the past. And quite frankly, if Miller and Jones aren’t hitting shots, there is no reason to put them on the floor.

David Blatt would be better served playing Joe Harris, who is a little better defensively, at this point in time.

At this point, the Cavs still seem to be using the roster turnover as an excuse, which it shouldn’t be half way through the season. They really need to just start playing hard, especially defensively.

One other thing. This team needs to get out and run, but if the other team keeps scoring, it’s difficult to get transition buckets.

The defense has to get fixed right now.

James’ Injury Doesn’t Mean Cupboard is Bare

No doubt it has been a crazy week for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

They’ve lost three of their last four, including a loss on Christmas Day at Miami, and then received a beatdown a few days later at home to the lowly Detroit Pistons.

Then, rumors started to fly that the management wasn’t happy with the job coach David Blatt is doing, and that LeBron James apparently talked to Dwyane Wade about an on-court reunion if things didn’t get better with the Cavs.

And yesterday, it was announced by the club that James will miss two weeks with lingering back and knee issues.

Phew!

With James out, there is the usual Cleveland doom and gloom in the air, with people feeling the dream season they envisioned for the wine and gold is slowly slipping away.

First of all, remember that even with LeBron on the sidelines, the Cavs still have two all-stars on the court in Kyrie Irving, who is having his best season as a pro, and Kevin Love. It’s not as though they are the Philadelphia 76ers.

This should allow and encourage Love to take more of an aggressive role offensively. So far, the former Timberwolf has seen to struggle to find his niche with Cleveland, so this will give him an opportunity to do just that.

Hopefully, it will also make Dion Waiters be more aggressive too, at least in the concept of the offense. Waiters has gone back and forth this season, either shooting too much or not enough. Now, the Cavs need his points and he should try to score more, but not do it in the one on one style he has used too much this season.

In fact, it would be a good opportunity for Blatt to move Waiters back in the starting lineup.

James’ absence could also improve how Blatt’s offensive system flows.

This isn’t to say that LBJ is circumventing the coach’s game plan, rather we think Blatt has moved away from his motion based attack to accommodate the four-time MVP’s ability to take pretty much anyone in the league off the dribble.

Now, without him, perhaps the offense will stay with the passing game more often. We have noticed in several contests that moving the ball gets Cleveland the lead or back into a game, and then the squad reverts to isolation basketball and they have trouble.

The stretch early in the fourth quarter against the Heat was a perfect indication. The Cavs tied the game, then missed nine consecutive field goals, most without running offense, and couldn’t recover.

This is where Blatt can put his stamp on the team. He can go in the locker room tonight and tell this team it doesn’t matter if James is out, there is still plenty of talent on the current roster to continue to win while he is out.

As for James, many have suspected that he hasn’t been healthy since training camp, and this is a good opportunity for him to heal up and come back strong for the rest of the season. And when he does, the coach needs to do a better job managing his minutes.

He shouldn’t be playing more than 35 minutes per game.

It would be nice if the Cavs had the best record in the Eastern Conference right now, but it is more important if they are playing their best ball in March and early April, heading into the playoffs.

We think a lot of fans think the post-season starts in the couple of weeks. We haven’t even reached the halfway point of the season.

If this is the best the Cavs can do, then there is a problem. However, we feel they will get better as the season goes on.

Maybe James’ Best Leadership Would Be Backing Blatt

The way basketball fans in this area talk about the Cleveland Cavaliers, you would think their record is below .500 or something like that.

In reality, the Cavs are 18-11 with a little over one-third of the season being played, in firm grasp of a playoff spot (they are seven games ahead of the current ninth seed), and no doubt will get better as the season plays on.

Once again, if you look at the teams who have the best record in each conference currently, Toronto and Atlanta in the Eastern Conference, and Golden State and Portland in the West, you find teams that basically are the same as last season.

Certainly, none of those teams made the changes the wine and gold did over the off-season.

And for those fans who have been critical of coach David Blatt, his area of expertise coming into the season was offense, and the Cavs have the fourth most efficient offense in the NBA right now, behind just the Raptors, Mavericks, and Clippers.

Clearly, the offense isn’t the problem, despite reports from the national media (read: ESPN).

On the defensive end, that’s another story. They rank 21st in the league in efficiency on that end of the floor (just ahead of Dallas, by the way), although they are right in the middle of the pack in points allowed (14th).

Because the Cavs have LeBron James back and brought in Kevin Love as well, there is no doubt extra media attention on everything the team does.

That includes last night when Love didn’t play in the fourth quarter in the win over Orlando, because the five who were out there were playing well. Blatt did the same thing less than a week ago, when Dion Waiters sat out the entire second half because Mike Miller and Matthew Dellavedova were playing well.

The next game, Waiters received his normal minutes.

One thing that hurts Blatt is that James hasn’t made many supportive comments about the head coach, and really, has never made any comments backing any of his coaches over the years, outside of phrases like “he’s the coach”.

Over the years, superstar players have been linked to their coaches. Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant with Phil Jackson, Tim Duncan with Gregg Popovich, Magic Johnson with Pat Riley, and even Bill Russell with Red Auerbach.

James never has had that relationship, that the coach has the best things in mind for both LeBron and the franchise in total.

It might be time for that now.

When the Cavs struggle this season, it’s because they seem to drift off into bad habits. In the Christmas Day loss to Miami, the wine and gold tied up the game and then spent the last ten minutes playing a lot of one-on-one style, and at one point missed nine shots in a row.

This is the opportunity for the team’s best player to say the Cavs need to do what Blatt wants them to do: share the ball and make an effort on the defensive end.

If LeBron says that publicly, and develops a partnership with Blatt, that will unify a team that still seems to fragment at times.

After all, Blatt is a pretty renowned coach around the globe. He’s not Mike Brown and Eric Spoelstra, guys who were around the league for a while but never had success before they had James on the roster.

He’s had success coaching the sport for a long time, maybe not at the highest professional level, but he’s got more of a track record that the others we’ve mentioned.

Developing that relationship would show the rest of the roster just who is in charge, and just may be the catalyst for a very successful season.

That might be the biggest statement LeBron James can make as the leader of this squad.