Underdog Cleveland insists it will have plenty of bite
INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — Vegas is betting against them, and the bookies are hardly alone.
Let’s be honest, not many are giving the Cleveland Cavaliers much of a chance in the NBA Finals. They may be defending champions, and they may have LeBron James, but against Golden State, they are definite underdogs.
Just don’t try to tell them that.
“The whole underdog thing is funny to me, because yeah, at the end of the day we are defending our title,” Cavs forward Kevin Love said after Saturday’s practice. “We’re trying to repeat, which is so hard to do. I think we will use it as fuel. We will use it as motivation, but the idea of playing into it? It’s tough for me to say that is the case. I don’t feel like we’re underdogs.
“We match up well with them and I think they’d say the same about us.”
Maybe, but as the teams gear up for Thursday night’s series opener in Oakland, comments made by Warriors forward Draymond Green in October are reverberating around Cleveland.
Still stinging after the Warriors blew a 3-1 lead in last year’s Finals against Cleveland, the vociferous Green, who was suspended from Game 5, said if given the chance again, he plans to “destroy and annihilate” the Cavs.
“He’s a guy who said he wanted us,” Love said, “and he has us — starting next Thursday.”
James elected not to talk about the Warriors following the Eastern Conference clincher in Boston on Thursday night, choosing instead to celebrate a third straight conference title in Cleveland and his seventh consecutive Finals trip. James didn’t speak to reporters Saturday either.
Love was asked if the Cavs wanted the Warriors.
“Want the Warriors?” he said. “They’ve been right at the top, best team in the league for three years straight now. They’ve been super impressive. It’s kind of in our minds that that’s who we were going to see. They played great basketball this year. Obviously adding an MVP to a team that already has a twotime MVP makes them even more impressive. It’s tough to say that we didn’t expect it; we knew they’d be right there.”
After the team returned from Boston in the wee hours Friday morning, Cavs coach Tyronn Lue didn’t go to bed and immediately began working on a game plan to stifle Golden State’s powerful, multifaceted offense.
Lue said he didn’t deliver any inspiring speech to his players before Saturday’s practice.
Words don’t mean much now — not his, not Green’s — and neither do underdog labels.
“We’re not going to use that as motivation,” Lue said. “We’re in the NBA Finals. That’s enough motivation alone. Not worry about what it says in Vegas or what people are saying about underdogs. We’re not using that as an excuse. We’ve got to come out and play. Our goals were set at the beginning of the season, and that’s to win a championship. So, that’s what we’re focused on.”