The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Getting swept exposes Cavaliers’ weaknesses
Roster needs an overhaul, but that may be difficult
A sweep in the NBA Finals says as much about the swept as it does about the team that used the brooms.
A sweep in the NBA Finals says as much about the swept as it does about the team that used the brooms.
The Cavaliers on June 8 were swept from the 2018 Finals in decisive fashion by the Golden State Warriors. The last team to be swept before this latest edition of the Cavaliers was the 2007 Cavaliers team that got wiped out as quickly as possible by the San Antonio Spurs.
The 2007 edition of the Cavaliers made the playoffs the next three years, but they were eliminated by Boston in the Eastern Conference finals in 2008, the conference finals in 2009 and the conference semifinals in 2010. That was when LeBron James decided if he was going to win a championship, he would have to do it somewhere else. He is facing that same decision this summer.
There have been nine sweeps in the NBA Finals in the past 60 years, including the 2018 Cavaliers. None of the eight teams that were swept before this Cavaliers team returned to win the title a year later.
The only losing teams to fight for the championship the next season were the 1984 Los Angeles Lakers, who lost the Celtics in seven games after being swept by Philadelphia in 1983, and the 2003 New Jersey Nets, who lost to the San Antonio Spurs in six games after be-
ing swept by the Lakers in 2002.
The Cavaliers are now 1-8 against the Warriors in the last two NBA Finals. They would have been swept last year if not for hitting 24 of 45 3-point shots in Game 4 at The Q to win, 136-117. Kyrie Irving scored 40 points and James scored 31.
The 108-85 loss to the Warriors on June 8 exposed just how inferior the Cavaliers are to Golden State, and that’s with James on the team.
“There were two games that were very winnable,” Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said in his postmortem after Game 4. “Being up (one point) in Game 3 with three minutes left, having a chance to win it with a free throw in regulation in Game 1. So despite how good their team is, I thought our guys did a good job of competing.
We still have to improve and get better, which we will. But we’re not that far off.”
Lue was being polite. There is too much dead weight on the Cavaliers, starting with J.R. Smith. Kyle Korver, normally an excellent 3-point shooter, was useless to the Cavs in the Finals. He made just one of 11 shots from long range in the series. He was 0-for-5 in 20 minutes in Game 4.
Tristan Thompson helped the Cavaliers
win the Eastern Conference, but, except for a few flashes, didn’t show the same energy against Golden State. The Warriors know how to defend and attack him, just as they know how to defend and attack Korver.
Jeff Green was a oneyear rental. There is no reason to re-sign him.
The Cavaliers are in a bind because the players they should trade have contracts that will be difficult if not impossible to peddle.
Smith is due $14.7 million next season. Thompson will have no problem keeping his baby daughter True Thompson in diapers; he is due roughly $17.5 million. Jordan Clarkson will make $12.5 million and George Hill will make $19 million.
The Cavaliers have the eighth pick in the draft June 21. That isn’t going to solve all their problems.
The Celtics should be better next season because Kyrie Irving (knee) and Gordon Hayward (ankle) will be back from injuries.
The Sixers should be better with the experience gained in 2017-18.
The Cavaliers without a major overhaul won’t be the best team in the East next year, and that makes the chances of a five-peat between Cleveland and Golden State very, very remote.