What’s wrong with the Cleveland Cavaliers?
And can the Celtics take advantage?
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Everyone is piling on the Cleveland Cavaliers.
After going 7-10 in March, the Cavs heard have heard it from fans, media, and Khloe Kardashian, who was upset with LeBron James for his public dressing down of Tristan Thompson during a game on Sunday. Not known for hyperbole, Skip Bayless called the Cavs’ infighting ‘volatile’ and ‘dangerous’. A statement like that’s gotta be true.
The Cavs do have real problems, as many as a tied-for-first-place, defending-champion, 50-27 team can have. Entering Wednesday’s action, the Cavaliers rank 22nd in the NBA on defensive rating, allowing 110.3 points per 100 possessions (the Celtics are 13th, at 108.3). They’re wholly reliant on 3-pointers, blowing past their franchise record for attempts at a rate that’s second to only the Houston Rockets this season. Nineteen players have seen the court for Cleveland this year, which is both a sign that some adjustment period was bound to be needed and a flashback to the 2010-11 Celtics, who employed 21 players, including Carlos Arroyo, Semih Erden, Troy Murphy, Sasha Pavlovic, and Von Wafer alongside their aging Big 3.
Cleveland is 19-19 on the road this season, and so home court in the playoffs matters, which might be why you’ve seen the Cavs get upset with each other after losses despite assertions from coach Tyronn Lue that the team is resting guys for the playoff push.
“We’re just in a bad spot right now” James said after a loss to the Bulls on March 30. “Not disappointed with the effort. We’re just in a bad spot. We’re going to try to figure it out. … I think the effort was there. I just don’t think the concentration for as close to 48 minutes is there yet. Which is unfortunate.”
And then there was Sunday’s overtime win over the Pacers in which James played 51 minutes (!) and got into it with Thompson. Afterward, LeBron took the rare step of immediately apologizing for his actions.
“I have to do a better job of not showing up my teammates out on the floor,” said James. “I had the right intentions in my mind, but I had the wrong intentions come out of my mouth.”
Infighting may or may not be a problem for Cleveland – successful teams snipe at each other all the time – but minutes have been a problem for LeBron especially, who’s been to six consecutive NBA Finals and is starting to accumulate an extra season’s worth of minutes. James’s 37.6 minutes per game this season are second in the league. Kyrie Irving’s 35 are 14th. The Celtics don’t have a player in the top 30.
What everyone wants to know now is whether the Cavaliers can fix themselves in time to win four consecutive playoff series starting in the middle of this month. While the only folks who would truly know that are setting lines at MGM Grand, the odds of a quick, complete recovery aren’t assured. LeBron won’t get to the NBA Finals again this year just because he usually does. The Celtics, Raptors, Wizards, and maybe even another team are poised to break through if Cleveland’s poor defense continues and its 3-pointers don’t fall.
You won’t hear that kind of talk from the Celtics, who are perfectly content to let the Cavs and the public know that Wednesday night’s Celtics-Cavs showdown doesn’t mean more than any other game, even if it does.
“At this point, I don’t care who plays,” Isaiah Thomas said, referring to the fact that Lue may once again rest his starters. “If [Cleveland’s stars] don’t play, that’ll be good. If they do, we’ll be there at 8 to play them. I’m fine with either way they go.”
