CAVALIERS BACK IN ELITE MODE
WIZARDS CLOSE GAP, BUT UNLESS JAMES IS OUT CLEVELAND STILL CONTROLS EASTERN CONFERENCE
The Washingt o n Wizards gave the Cleveland Cavaliers all they could handle Monday night. In what was arguably the best game of this NBA regular season so far ( the only competition is Cleveland’s showdown with the Golden State Warriors on Christmas Day), the Wizards and Cavaliers went toeto- toe and shot- for- shot for 53 minutes, in a game that seemed far more suited to basketball in May than February.
But, in the end, the result was the same as it has been for every team in the Eastern Conference that’s gone up against LeBron James over the past six seasons and counting: James walking off victorious, leaving his opponents shaking their head. This time that came in the wake of his ridiculous turnaround heave from threepoint range to tie the game with 0.3 seconds left in regulation and ultimately send it to overtime where Cleveland won, 140-135.
Despite the loss, the Wizards showed they have officially moved into the upper- echelon of the Eastern Conference, alongside the Toronto Raptors and Boston Celtics. It also showed something else: while those are all quality teams, they all have a long way to go to reach the East penthouse currently occupied by James and the Cavs. Against those three teams a few floors below, Cleveland’s record gleams at a spotless 7- 0.
Unless something happens to James between now and June, that’s not going to change. This is why it’s hard to see how Cleveland could even consider trading away Kevin Love to the New York Knicks for Carmelo Anthony, as a report out of New York suggested James would like the Cavaliers to do during Monday night’s game.
Never mind that the Cavaliers quickly squashed the report, or that James himself said post- game, “It’s trash, and the guy who wrote it is trash, too, for writing that, especially during the game like that.”
Just look at the fact Love had 39 points, 12 rebounds and buried six three- pointers while being a matchup nightmare for the Wizards throughout the game, or look at how Irving had 11 points in overtime to push the Cavaliers over the top even with James watching from the bench after fouling out early in the extra session.
There’s been plenty of noise surrounding Cleveland — much of it created by James himself — about the state of the Cavaliers’ roster over the past several weeks, especially as they finished January with a 7- 8 record. But the truth is that Cleveland is still far superior to everyone around them.
Considering none of their chief competition has dinged the Cavaliers once in the regular season, the idea the Wizards, Raptors or Celtics could do so four times in a playoff series seems farfetched. Toronto has been struggling for weeks, thanks in large part to injuries to DeMar DeRozan and Patrick Patterson, and don’t look as good as the team that took two games off Cleveland last post-season. Boston currently occupies the second spot in the East and has the fifthbest record in the league, but is too heavily reliant on Isaiah Thomas for its offence to truly challenge Cleveland.
And for as well as Washington played Monday — and the Wizards were fantastic, with Bradley Beal going for 41 points and eight assists, John Wall’s 22 points and 12 assists and Otto Porter, the league’s leading three- point shooter, at 25 points on 5-for7 shooting from deep — they had 119 of their 135 points come from their starting five. The bench remains a big problem.
Cleveland, meanwhile, is still trying to work in recently acquired Kyle Korver ( 13 points Monday and 4- for- 8 from three) and are still without J.R. Smith, who has missed the past several weeks with a thumb injury that will keep him out for several more. And they’ve still been able to comfortably stay atop the East and beat back all challengers. Cleveland may not have a perfect roster, but what the Cavaliers do have is a fleet of players capable of spreading the floor around James to allow him the space to operate freely.
It’s a combination that proved deadly to the Wizards, as James racked up a career- high 17 assists, and one that’s given the Cavaliers a formula no team in the East has come close to solving.
That doesn’t mean Cleveland is content with its roster. The Cavaliers left their initial meeting with the Warriors on Christmas thinking they needed to add two players, and would still be happy to add another even after general manager David Griffin did an excellent job to acquire Korver. The idea Carmelo Anthony is that player — and at the cost of Love — seems hard to justify.
From Cleveland’s perspective, the past two years go like this: If the Cavaliers would have been healthy the first time they played the Warriors in the NBA Finals in 2015, they would’ve won a title. Then, when they were healthy last year, they did win it.
Making a trade for Anthony now — beyond the fact it would astronomically increase Cleveland’s total salary and luxury tax payments, something owner Dan Gilbert is loathe to do — would be a huge risk for a team that’s virtually assured of reaching the NBA Finals. The only possible barrier would be a James injury, something no trade would remedy.