1. Unfamiliar, yet unfazed
Following their 98-90 loss on Sunday afternoon LeBron James was asked about losing his first round one game since 2012, and he responded as one might expect.
“I’m down 0-1 in the first round. I was down 3-1 in the Finals,” James said Sunday. “I’m the last guy to ask about how you’re going to feel the next couple of days.”
While this comment rubbed some the wrong way, anyone who has followed James’ career closely wasn’t shocked by them. For a man who is the best player on the court any given night, he has every right to feel relaxed going into Game 2. The question is, should he?
Three years ago many wondered how the 2015 Cavs would respond to their first playoff run, Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving had both never experienced playoff basketball, let alone playoff basketball with LeBron James. As everyone knows that playoff run ended in Game 6 on the NBA Finals, so you can venture to say it turned out decently well. So why are some so hesitant to trust this James led Cavaliers team? For starters, there is no one as talented and gifted as Irving walking into Quicken Loans Arena to help bail them out. While Kevin Love is a fine second option, he lacks the ability to create his own shot the way Irving did, or even the way Dwyane Wade did in James’ Miami days.
So why is LeBron so confident this time, you ask? The Cavaliers shot a whopping 38.5 percent from the field and just 23.5 percent from behind the arc, so one can assume that one of the NBA’s best offensive teams will be better on offense. While it is never good to assume, this is probably a safe bet as four key rotation players (Jeff Green, Kyle Korver, Jordan Clarkson and Jose Calderon) shot a combined (1-17) from the field. If the Cavs continue to get this type or production from those guys, it wouldn’t matter if they were playing the Washington Generals, they would still struggle to win.
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