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.

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.

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.