35 for No. 31: Cavs-Heat, Behind the Box Score
April 11, 2017Yandy Diaz needs to change his hitting approach: Between Innings
April 11, 2017
Happy Tuesday, WFNY!
I hope all my fellow WFNYers (WFNYans?) are off to a great start this week, I know I am. Well, everything is great as long as we’re not talking about Cleveland sports. Oh. Right. This is a Cleveland sports site. We have to talk about Cleveland sports this morning, don’t we?
Well, let me tell you something. Last week I was feeling great. I was confident. Things were looking up. The Cleveland Indians swept the Texas Rangers in their opening series with a couple dramatic wins that made it feel like they were picking right up where the postseason ended. The Cleveland Cavaliers, after an embarrassing month of March, had won four in a row including a thrashing of the Boston Celtics in Boston to put what felt like an unbreakable grip on the top seed in the Eastern Conference.
Like I said, I felt great. I felt confident. Cleveland sports were ready to rise once more. So I sent out a tweet.
Are the Cavs and Indians doing that thing again where neither team ever loses for a long time? I sure hope so. That was fun last year.
— Andrew Schnitkey (@RockWFNY) April 6, 2017
The Cavaliers and Indians are a combined 0-6 since I tweeted that. If anyone would ever like to hire me for my jinxing skills, shoot me an email and we’ll talk. It’s uncanny how much ability I have to dictate outcomes just by publicly stating my opinion on things.
Ok, ok, so no, I don’t really think I had anything to do with this. The Cavs and Indians would both be 0-6 since then had I not tweeted anything. These teams simply are who they are and we are here to observe and to root for a favorable outcome. But the cause of whatever outcome occurs is the sole responsibility of the players and coaches themselves.
I’ll tell you what, though, this year’s Cavaliers team has me feeling awfully bipolar. A week ago I thought the Cavaliers were on the road to figuring everything out and getting back on track for their playoff run. Today I’m not sure how they get out of the first round. That’s joke. I think.
Look, the Cavaliers should still be fine. They should still get out of the East. They are easily the best team in the Eastern Conference. Nothing that has happened in 2017 has changed those facts. If the Cavaliers don’t make the Finals it won’t be because they simply ran into a better basketball team. It will mean they played a team who was playing better basketball right now. There’s a distinction there. It’s small, but it exists and that distinction is important.
It is important because that distinction is typically what determines who plays in the NBA Finals. Basketball is probably the closest thing to a meritocracy that we have in sports. In a best-of-seven series, the best team almost always wins. Why is that? Well, it’s for the same reasons that people have been spouting as justifications for their beliefs as to why the Cavaliers will be fine. In the postseason there are fewer variables. There’s more rest between games, the substitution patterns shrink and the best lineups play more minutes together, the game slows down into a half-court measure of efficiency.
If you want reasons to hope and/or believe that the Cavaliers are going to be fine in the playoffs, those are your reasons. Cleveland still has LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love and only a fool would count out LeBron in the playoffs. There is no reason why the Cavaliers should lose before the NBA Finals.
Still not convinced? Want some real-life examples of a team having the best talent, coasting through the regular season, and then turning it on in the playoffs? The most obvious example is the Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant era Los Angeles Lakers teams. In 1999-00, the Lakers had a monstrous regular season. That team, which in addition to Shaq and Kobe also had Glen Rice, Ron Harper, Derek Fisher, Robert Horry, and Rick Fox, went 67-15 in the regular season. They struggled a bit throughout the playoffs and had to orchestrate their memorable comeback win against the Portland Trail Blazers in the Western Conference Finals, but they eventually won the NBA Finals.
The next season, the Lakers frustrated the hell out of their fans and the media alike. They stumbled to a 56-26 record (expected W-L of 51-31) and the #3 seed in the West. They were 21st in the NBA in defensive efficiency and 23rd in points against. No matter how much they struggled, the team insisted they were fine. “We don’t care about the regular season, we’re waiting for the playoffs to turn it on” was their motto. And that’s what they did. They ended up sweeping their way through the West before dropping only a single game to the Philadelphia 76ers in the NBA Finals.
This example is important because one player who was actually on the roster on both of those Lakers teams was Ty Lue. So when we hear Lue keep insisting that he’s not worried about his team, that he’s not going to chase the #1 seed in the East, that the only thing he cares about is having everyone healthy and rested for the playoffs, this might be why. Lue has seen this before and he knows how it can be done.
It’s a dangerous game, but there’s also something to be said for a team just trusting themselves and sticking to their plan. This was supposed to be a fun season. We were going to celebrate the Championship all year long. The banner-raising ceremony was incredible. The Cavs were fantastic in 2016, culminating in that incredibly fun win on Christmas Day against the Golden State Warriors. It seems like after that, the Cavs decided they had made their point and proven all they needed to prove. They shut their season down and they haven’t been the same since.
It was right before Christmas when JR Smith hurt his thumb and was ruled out for three months after needing surgery. It’s almost like the Cavs held on long enough to beat the Warriors and then decided to pack it in. Defense was no longer a requirement, effort could be reserved and withheld in spurts. Everything was focused on just making sure everyone was ok for the playoffs.
But along the way, did they lose their focus altogether? Is it possible to reclaim that sense of urgency? Can they really just turn it back on next week? We’re about to find out. The Cavaliers have one more game, a game in which they are again going to rest starters. Then it is on to the playoffs where they will look to prove to everyone else that the regular season is truly as meaningless as Cleveland has insisted it is all along.
33 Comments
I thought this was settled. We are all WFNYses.
As for doom, there may be a day when doom comes, but it is not this day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXGUNvIFTQw
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f7f7988dc9ab03ef8b62bcd29b69abd614e1c5cc46b0e3a8646a071ec262481b.gif
Pronounced Whiff-ness-es?
Affirmative.
That applies quite nicely to the Tribe last weekend.
I don’t know. Our pitching staff gave up some monster hits . . .
The annual “our pets heads are falling off” Cavs moment has arrived…this time much later in the season that usual (and with no apparent scapegoats other than apathy or boredom maybe?)
Wake me up when they get to their third Finals and chance for back to back championships. Then after making me a nice grilled cheese, please read me Go Dogs Go and put me back to sleep and then wake me up again for baseball playoffs. And in the interim, please do all of my work and put my out of office message on. Thanks
Let me make sure I got all this on my list… https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/34ac5b703d0788c952febfbc3c5efe0678a32747a5d3f4925311905551648cfa.gif
Look this weekend was bad all around (due to s*itty timezone factors). Bad SP, Bad RP, Bad Offense, Bad Defense. Let’s just chalk it up to one-off, small-sample-size, blah blah.
Dammit, you aren’t following instructions. Police have been called. You are going to be pulled out of your seat and dragged off this forum.
Not police – hired goons.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsUuhW7WbIg
hi Andrew … please don’t comment on the draft until AFTER the draft … thanks. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/47e48a9e9ad8a2327a488bd0ec86dbcda8e8b7778a985b9971b37fd4dc738ec7.jpg
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/eb88705c5a38f9963dbfb149445882059f8b8628e92e2bf6ea1e55ea9e799f80.gif
I’ve been off WFNY of late so am sure it’s been discussed ad nauseum. However, in looking at the potential playoff bracket (http://www.nbaplayoffsbracket.com/2017/index.php) I’m not so sure the second seed does not present the more favorable path in terms of matchups. We’ve struggled with Wall/Beal, and shown we have a formula for beating the Pacers and Raptors. Home court through the East would be nice, but all we have to do is take one in Boston if we face them in the Finals and their advantage is moot.
Am glad Lebron is resting. His mastery most emerges in the grind of these playoff series, and I’m pleased that he’ll be healthy and have a week off preceding Game 1.
http://www.arcticblubber.com/gallery/d/953-1/giphy+_3_.gif
“Aw, I don’t have to keep up with my reading assignments. I’ll just cram for the final.”
Yeah, that always worked.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/48058f76fb6f9442f416a0c4c5663766a44c376dc08ba4d55dcb2d7a3c570290.jpg
WFNYses works on Cavs articles (whiff-ness-es).
Woofnies on Browns articles.
Still need a better on with more positive affirmation for Tribe ones.
When the pitchers are on their game, whiff-ness-es works perfectly.
But I think it works, in general, because of the old sign downtown. It was about Cleveland, and not just the Cavs.
The Cavs don’t seem like they’re having fun. It’s not fun for me either.
I use the “pets heads falling off” reference a lot and no one gets it! +1 for you sir.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/972088d49318096c1636756151eaf985c33e149bb31b777cba6ab3000ecb4ced.jpg
what we have witnessed with the Browns is not something we want to remind ourselves of though 😉
Those are people I just don’t want to meet or be friends with.
Too late:
https://twitter.com/RockWFNY/status/851777025807450112
I still say nobody in the East will beat the Cavs. The Finals are an entirely different story.
I go even further back in time to the end of the Bill Russell era. Knowing that they were becoming long in the tooth, the team had a poor record (for 7 time defending champs) and finished 4th. In the playoffs, their rest paid off and they won it all again. The point is that if you are truly the best team, you will prevail regardless of home court.
that looks a lot like reverse psychology to me …
Testify!
The Bucks scare me a little. Not because I think they could win, but they would work the hell out of the Cavs. Their wingspan is ridiculous, and after watching the second half of that game yesterday, the role players were struggling hard with Miami’s young length (looking at you D-Will) when they actually played defense. LeBron and Kyrie are obviously trump cards, but the prospect of Delay near anybody’s lower half make me a little apprehensive lol
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I am sure we will be told a Cavs Finals loss was the direct result of not enough urgency vs a meaningless game vs the Hawks. Just take that to the bank, Senator Trent.
The complete and utter devastation Lebron put down on Boston with fresh legs was all I needed to see. The old man doesnt have the legs to do that every night but with the slow playoff schedule, I think we’ll be fine.
Wahoofnesses