From the moment LeBron James decided to return home, the Cleveland Cavaliers have been one of the NBA’s best teams.
Unfortunately, that’s not good enough.
That much was evident two weeks ago, when Cavs general manager David Griffin fired head coach David Blatt and promoted assistant Tyronn Lue despite Cleveland owning the best record in the Eastern Conference. But is a changing of the guard really enough to get the Cavs over the hump and avenge last season’s NBA Finals loss?
First things first: It’s looking more likely that replacing Blatt with Lue was the right call. Shortly after Blatt’s firing, the team reportedly had a closed-doors, players-only meeting that involved an “airing of grievances.” A few players thought the team lacked accountability under Blatt, with different sets of rules for different players. (We’re looking at you, LeBron.)
That discontent has appeared to subside under Lue, as evidenced by a recent five-game winning streak — including an impressive 14-point win over the San Antonio Spurs — after an ugly loss to the Chicago Bulls in the first game of Lue’s tenure.
Lue also has tweaked the Cavs’ offensive philosophy, namely by picking up the pace and spreading the ball more. Cleveland has a 115.7 offensive rating in its last six games and is giving 6.2 elbow touches per game to forward Kevin Love, according to NBA.com’s player tracking data. Love received just 3.9 elbow touches per game under Blatt, and he’s responded to the increased usage by dropping 19 or more points in four of his last five games.
If the revamped Cavs can stay healthy, the road back to the NBA Finals looks pretty smooth. Cleveland enters Friday’s game against the Boston Celtics with a 35-13 record and a 2 1/2-game lead over the Toronto Raptors in the Eastern Conference. The red-hot Raptors could pose a threat, but their success almost primarily hinges on All-Star guard duo Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, and the likes of James, Love and Tristan Thompson can victimize Toronto’s frontcourt.
Which leads us to the million-dollar question: Can the Cavs knock off the steamroller that is the Golden State Warriors, or the Spurs if they can spring a Western Conference upset? Stephen Curry and Co. somehow look better than last season and could realistically stake a claim as an all-time best team. Cleveland was without Love and had a banged-up Kyrie Irving in last season’s Finals, but can anyone stop Curry, much less All-Stars Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, when they’re on their game?
The Cavs certainly couldn’t when the Warriors blew their doors off by 34 points on Jan. 18. James’ crew has a new head coach and a presumably better attitude now, but at this point, that doesn’t appear to be enough. On the rare occasion Golden State loses, it’s usually because Curry goes cold or the opposition catches fire. James and Co. certainly could pull off a win or two, but it’s hard to imagine anyone beating the Warriors four times in seven games.
The Cavs are a better team with Lue on the sideline, but they’ll need a miracle accomplish their goal of being the best in June.
Thumbnail photo via Brian Spurlock/USA TODAY Sports Images
