CAVS CAVS BRUSH BRUSH ASIDE ASIDE CONCERNS
The Cleveland Cavaliers can roll into Boston in early April and clobber the Celtics by 23 points, sending a clear message to the rest of the Eastern Conference.
They are equally capable of sending a conflicting message, like the loss to the Atlanta Hawks at home last week when the Hawks sat key players and the puzzling loss to the Hawks on Sunday after leading by 26 points in the fourth quarter.
Such are this season’s Cavaliers, capable of returning to the NBA Finals for the third consecutive season or losing before the Finals.
“I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a reason to be concerned,” Cavs general manager David Griffin told reporters this week.
The second- seeded Cavaliers open defense of their championship against the seventh- seeded Indiana Pacers on Saturday ( 2 p. m. CT, ABC).
“We’re in a position where we can do something special, still,” Cavaliers star LeBron James said. “At the end of the day, I’m not one to harp on what happened with the regular season through injuries, through bad losses, through good wins, whatever the case may be. We have a good club going into the postseason. That’s all you can ask for.”
For a team that finished 51- 31, the Cavaliers’ fickle situation entering the playoffs illuminates the difficulty of repeating and playing deep into the playoffs season after season after season. It’s physically, mentally and emotionally taxing.
Then, take into account James’ run of six consecutive Finals — 148 postseason games in that stretch — and it makes Cleveland’s plight even more difficult, especially in the more competitive Eastern Conference.
The Celtics, Washington Wizards and Milwaukee Bucks won more games this season than last season, and while Toronto didn’t have more wins, the Rap- tors are playing well at the right time.
“It’s going to be a bigger challenge for us this year,” Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said.
The Cavs are not the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, but that shouldn’t be a huge concern.
At some point during the playoffs, a championship- caliber team needs to win on the road.
In the previous six seasons, James’ teams have not been the top seed four times ( with the Miami Heat in 2011, 2012, 2014 and with Cleveland in 2015) and his teams still reached the Finals.
“I’ve felt very confident no matter if I was a one or two seed or whatever seed I was,” James said. “I’ve just felt confident that I can go into any building and win. I believe our team feels the same way this year.”
Cleveland has deeper concerns than seeding, such as its defense, which finished the regular season ranked 22nd in defensive efficiency, allowing 108 points per 100 possessions. The Cavs defense was worse in the final 2 1⁄2 months of the season, allowing 111 since Feb. 1.
It’s uncommon for a team to be that bad defensively and win a title, and almost 90% of NBA finalists in the last 46 seasons finished the regular season in the top 10 in defensive rating.
The 2000- 01 Los Angeles Lakers finished 21st in defensive rating during the regular season and won the title. During the playoffs, the Lakers had the best defensive rating.
The switch can be flipped. No team likes to operate like that. It’s not ideal, but it’s the situation the Cavs are in, and they have the talent to rebound from a less- than- ideal season that included injuries and an expected modicum of complacency.
But when you have James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love surrounded by Tristan Thompson, J. R. Smith, Chan- ning Frye, Richard Jefferson, Kyle Korver and Iman Shumpert, it’s 100% possible to be a championship- caliber team by the start of the Finals in early June.
“We’re more talented than we were at this time last year,” Griffin said. “We’ve been through more, we’re more hardened and seasoned than we were at this time last year.”
With James, who had one of his best individual seasons in 2016- 17, anything is possible as he demonstrated last season, pulling the Cavs out of a 3- 1 deficit and leading them to the NBA title against the Golden State Warriors.
Asked why he thinks the Cavs have a great chance to accomplish their goals, James was coy.
“I got the answer. I’m not giving it to you,” he said. “But I got the answer why I feel we have a great chance.”
The pass- fail exam for the Cavaliers begins Saturday.