A World Series and a Championship Ring Ceremony on the same night? – WFNY Podcast No. 546
October 25, 2016That’s My Boy, World Series Game 1: Ball Played
October 26, 2016New York Knicks 88
Defending Champions Cleveland Cavaliers 117
[Box Score]
Prior to June 2016, had anyone been told that the Cleveland Cavaliers would end the city’s 52 year championship drought in dramatic fashion by overcoming a 3-1 deficit against the team with the best regular season record in NBA history, any thought of the ring celebration and banner-raising game being a somewhat subdued affair would have been insane. Which isn’t to say the excitement for the event wasn’t off the charts. But with the Cleveland Indians hosting Game 1 of the World Series across the street, the Championship celebration inside The Q actually took a bit of a back seat in the city’s sports mindset.
The moment itself, though, was nothing short of incredible. Reliving all the feelings and emotions of last June when this team did the unthinkable, seeing the flood of emotions on the players’ faces again, all of it was just a rush of adrenaline, happiness, and exuberance once more. And once everyone was given their rings, the banner was raised to the rafters, the banner that will forever hang as a testament to the moment we all witnessed. It was a special moment in Cleveland sports history, but it was an even bigger moment in Cavalier history as it finally puts the closing memento on the first NBA Championship in franchise history.
As for the game itself (because, yes, despite all the pomp and circumstance in Cleveland on Tuesday night, there was actually a boring ol’ regular season game happening), it was much of what you might expect for a season opener. There were great moments of brilliant basketball balanced by stretches of sloppy turnover-prone basketball.
One thing perhaps not expected, though, is that the Cleveland Cavaliers won. “But they were playing the Knicks, of course they were expected to win!” Sure. But the funny thing is, the Cavaliers have been really bad in season openers with LeBron James on the roster. This is the 10th season LeBron will play in Cleveland. In the previous nine openers, LeBron and the Cavaliers were 2-7. I don’t really know why, it’s just one of those things. In the two previous openers since LeBron’s homecoming, the Cavaliers struggled mightily in two ugly losses.
Two seasons ago, Cleveland celebrated the return of LeBron James along with the acquisition of Kevin Love on opening night. The Cavaliers got off to a quick start and everything looked great early. But by the end of the first quarter the Cavaliers were sputtering, and the New York Knicks stunned the Cavaliers by winning the opening night game. This year, the Cavaliers were celebrating a Championship on opening night, once again against the Knicks. This time, there would be no letdown, though, as LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love would remind Derrick Rose what a “super team” really looks like.
Overall, Tuesday night was a night the city of Cleveland will never, ever forget. A city where the sports passion outweighs the sports successes by a metric ton, Cleveland has never allowed itself to be defined by the losing, but instead by its unwavering hope in its teams. Finally, that passion and hope was repaid by the sports karma owed to it with the Cleveland Indians hosting Game 1 of the World Series on the same night the Cleveland Cavaliers celebrated their Championship by receiving their rings and raising the franchise’s first NBA Championship banner. While the World Series will continue the baseball celebration a little longer, now the Cavaliers are solely back to business. So with that in mind, let’s get back to Behind the Box Score business as well by looking at the numbers.
- 19/11/14 – LeBron James picked up the 2016-17 season where he left off the 2015-16 season, with a triple double. LeBron scored a quiet 19 points, but made his presence felt everywhere else on the court with 11 rebounds, 14 assists, a monstrous blocked shot from behind, and a game-high +26. LeBron was patient with his own scoring, never really feeling the need to take the game over offensively. Instead, LeBron was an absolute assassin with his passing, setting up teammates all over the court and setting up easy scoring opportunities for everyone else.
- 19 – This game started uneventfully enough for Kyrie Irving. Despite some good looks and nice plays, Kyrie’s shot just wasn’t falling as he shot 4-for-12 in the first half for 10 points. The Cavaliers took just a three point lead into halftime, but in the third quarter, Kyrie Irving took over the game and put away the Knicks with an insane offensive explosion. Kyrie scored 19 of his game-high 29 points in the third quarter on 8-of-10 shooting from the field. For the game Kyrie also had 4 assists, 2 rebounds, 2 steals, and 0 turnovers. Much was made of how Ty Lue wants Kyrie to be more consistently aggressive this season and if this game is any indication of what’s to come, Kyrie could have some monster games this season.
- 23/12 – The third member of the big trio, Kevin Love, had a bit of an uneven game with some nice plays and also some stretches of poor shooting. But he stuck with it, never giving in to frustration, and he maintained his aggressiveness in finishing with 23 points and 12 rebounds for an opening night double-double. The Cavaliers created some lineups for Love with the second unit where Love could serve as the focal point of the offense. This was something many have been calling for out of the Cavaliers since Love joined the team, but it hasn’t been used often. And while Love struggled a bit with his shot (6-of-15 from the field), he was aggressive attacking the rim and was thus the only Cavalier to attempt more than 2 free throws, going 9-for-12 from the free throw line.
- 31-14 – The Cavaliers had 31 assists to 14 turnovers, compared to 17 assists to 18 turnovers for the Knicks. The ball movement by the Cavaliers was phenomenal in this game. Even when the game was close, the Cavaliers were passing the ball like crazy and getting really great looks. They were just missing a lot of those open shots. In the second half, some of those shots started falling and the game got out of hand. Which tells you how explosive this Cavs offense can be this season. Even in a game when the offense wasn’t great, they scored 117 points despite Kyrie not even playing in the fourth quarter. Most of this was because of how well the Cavs were passing the ball. They ended up with 31 assists on 45 made field goals, and while they didn’t shoot the ball as well as they might be capable of, they absolutely played great team basketball.
- 1-0 – The Cleveland Indians took a 1-0 series lead against the Chicago Cubs in the World Series. Yes, this is a basketball recap, but if Dan Gilbert can give a “Go Tribe” shout out in his pregame speech and LeBron James can keep hyping up the Indians postseason run, WFNY thinks it’s only fair to also support the Tribe even in our basketball pieces. And, seeing as how it’s really hard to write a basketball recap while trying to keep an eye on the World Series, it’s no convenience said recap wasn’t finished before the end of the Indians game, allowing for this inclusion here. Go Tribe!
As always, there’s nothing much you can really take away from a season opener. Emotions are usually all over the place, rust is still being shaken off, and sloppy play is the norm. All of that was multiplied on a night where most of the team got rings1. But the Cavaliers prevailed, the Indians won, and thus one of the best sports night any city has ever experienced was completed with nothing but joy for Cleveland.
- I kind of felt sorry for Mike Dunleavy, DeAndre Liggins, Chris Andersen, and Kay Felder as I found myself wondering what they were doing while their teammates were celebrating a Championship that these guys were not a part of. Had to be a pretty bizarre feeling. [↩]
1 Comment
Jeez, those rings are the size of my watch.