The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Lue: ‘Best player’ will save Cavs
As rocky as things have been for the Cavaliers the last four weeks, Coach Tyronn Lue can sleep easy every night when his head hits his pillow for one simple reason:
“Because we have the best player in the world,” Lue said Jan. 15 before the Cavaliers hosted the Warriors at Quicken Loans Arena.
Lue was answering a question asking whether he still believes the Cavs are the best team in the Eastern Conference. They were third in the East with a record 2616 when play Jan. 15 began. They lost three straight and eight of 11 before playing the Warriors.
A couple minutes later, Lue amended his original answer.
“We’re not right now, but we will be the best team in the East,” Lue said. “We’re not playing the best right now, but we will be at some point.”
LeBron James is third in the NBA in scoring (27.1 points a game), fourth in assists (8.8) and third in minutes played (36.9). He scored 32 points, grabbed eight rebounds and dished out eight assists, but it wasn’t enough for the Cavaliers to extend their dominance at The Q. Their 13-game home winning streak was snapped, 118-108, by the rival Warriors in large part because the Cavs made just six of 23 shots in the fourth quarter.
They made 37 of 71 shots (52.1 percent) in the first three quarters.
The Cavaliers’ recent struggles did nothing to diminish the intensity of playing the Warriors in the TNT feature game on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but the cold fourth quarter is symptomatic of why the losing streak is now at four.
The Warriors are on top of the Western Conference with a record of 36-9. That’s how it should be.
The Cavs, though, are
better than their record, and Golden State coach Steve Kerr knows it. He saw enough of the Cavaliers while facing them in three straight NBA Finals (the Warriors win twice) to know though the Cavs aren’t at their best in mid-January they will be by late May.
“I am very aware they have LeBron,” Kerr said in his pregame news conference. “I guarantee there was a moment like this (for the Cavaliers), at least once, sometimes more, in each of the last three seasons. He’s always going to get the ship righted. What happens now has nothing to do with what happens later.”
James has started all 43
games the Cavs have played this season, but his durability goes beyond that. He gets pounded like a Lake Erie breakwall in a storm night in and night out. With a minute to play, when his 33-year-old body should be weary, he drives to the hoop like it’s the first quarter.
His scoring and assists numbers speak for themselves. What can’t be measured in numbers is the way he wants to take the team and city on his battleship-sized shoulders at crucial times or the way he speaks his mind on social issues, because that makes him a leader as much as anything else.
About six weeks or so ago, James after practice in Independence one day said he hasn’t reached his peak yet. He wasn’t boasting. Kerr was asked about James’ remark.
“I know he’s better now than he was four years ago,” Kerr said. “That’s insane when you think about it. That should have been his prime four years ago when he already was an MVP and a champion.” So does Tyronn Lue. That’s why the Cavs coach isn’t worried.