The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Battle-tested Cavs ready for playoffs
The Cavaliers, like a group of explorers who spent the last sixth months hacking their way through a jungle filled with dangerous animals and quicksand, have finally completed one of the most remarkable seasons of perseverance in franchise history. Injuries, a failed trade, subsequent trades because of the failed trade and more injuries forced the Cavaliers coaches to use 29 starting combinations involving 18 different players in their starting lineups for 2017-18. Yet when the regular season ended on April 11 with the Cavaliers bowing to the Knicks, 110-98, their final record of 50-32 was just one game behind their record a year ago.
Kevin Love (hip) and Kyle Korver (foot) were rested against the Knicks. Both could have played, but Coach Tyronn Lue chose to not risk them aggravating their injuries.
Lue wanted to rest LeBron James, too, but James wanted to play because he started the first 81 games. He had never played all 82 games in any of his first 14 seasons. So coach and star struck a bargain; Once James reached 10 points for the 873rd consecutive time in his career, the 33-year-old superstar would take a seat at the end of the bench. His night ended with 1:27 left in the first quarter and the Cavs leading, 20-15.
The loss in the final game was meaningless because while the Knicks were pulling away from the Cavs, the 76ers were crushing the Milwaukee Bucks in Philadelphia to secure the third seed. It means the Cavaliers finish fourth in the East and will play Indiana in the first round of the playoffs.
The challenges for the Cavaliers began in July when Kyrie Irving asked to be traded. A month later Irving was traded to the Celtics for guard Isaiah Thomas, forward Jae Crowder, center Ante Zizic, and two draft picks. One of those, the 2018 first-round pick belonging to the Brooklyn Nets, will help in the future but it won’t help them in the playoffs this spring.
Now Irving is recovering from knee surgery and will be sidelined four more months. The Celtics are expected to make a quick exit in the playoffs. Not so the Cavaliers.
The Knicks last visited The Q on Oct. 29 for the Cavs’ eighth game of the season. Five players on that Cavaliers roster — Thomas, Crowder, Derrick Rose, Dwyane Wade and Iman Shumpert — were scattered around the country in deals at the Feb. 8 trading deadline. Shumpert was the only player from the five that was with the Cavaliers last year.
Love, Tristan Thompson, Korver, Thomas, Rose, Larry Nance Jr., Cedi Osman and George Hill all missed playing time this season. Yet the Cavs kept finding ways to win.
“There was a stretch where we had some tough times,” Lue said before the game. “(James) could easily have sat out a few games here and there, but he wanted to play and lead by example, especially for the new guys that came in.
“He’s done an amazing job of carrying this team. Kevin’s been great. The coaching staff has been great.”
The trials the Cavaliers endured to get to the brink of the playoffs have toughened them for what lies ahead. “Iron sharpens iron,” is the way players like to put it. The expression fits the Cavaliers perfectly.