LeBron’s big night salvages OT win for poor-shooting Cavs
Kyrie Irving won some headlines Friday when he said that the Cleveland Cavaliers are still “the team to beat” for the NBA title this season, a claim that head coach Ty Lue quickly corrected by noting that his group should only be considered the favorite in the East. While it’s easy to explain away Irving’s comment as a byproduct of necessary confidence rather than a measured take on the situation, Lue’s correction is arguably more remarkable for being accurate. The Cavs have looked unsettled and uncomfortable playing with each other for the bulk of this season, yet it’s hard to predict any other team will come out of the East in June.
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That’s primarily because LeBron James continues to be one of the sport’s few game-defining talents. His skills were on full display during Friday night’s tight contest at the Atlanta Hawks. Up 55-41 at the half, the Cavs allowed the Hawks to take the lead after fewer than seven minutes of the second half. The game stayed tight for the remainder, with LeBron and Jeff Teague trading lay-ups in the final 40 seconds to send it to the extra period tied at 96-96.
James didn’t dominate OT, but it’s hard to imagine the Cavs would have won without him taking control in key moments at both ends. LeBron scored just one point but assisted on all three Cleveland field goals and had a very nice block of Teague at the other end. The Hawks got a chance to win at the buzzer when Irving missed one of two free throws with just over six seconds left, but Al Horford’s decent look did not go down:
The 110-108 win allowed the Cavs to keep their 2 1/2-game lead on the Toronto Raptors, who came from behind to beat the Memphis Grizzlies 99-95. LeBron was easily the star of the night, putting up 29 points (12-of-26 FG), 16 rebounds, nine assists, and three steals in 44 minutes (all team highs). He also moved ahead of Oscar Robertson for 11th place on the all-time scoring list.
That’s not to say that the Cavs looked any more prepared to beat the eventual West champion in a seven-game series. Irving (5-of-23 FG) and Kevin Love (5-of-11 FG, nine of which were threes) struggled to get involved with any consistency and looked less integral to the team structure than role players Tristan Thompson and J.R. Smith. Cleveland played well at the defensive end but shot only 39.8 percent themselves.
The Hawks were just about as inefficient but should gain reason to feel confident in a potential playoff series with the Cavs. (The Hawks are currently in a virtual tie with the Charlotte Hornets for the No. 3 seed but sit in fourth by percentage points.) They were in a position to win on several occasions and did not fold despite the result. For that matter, Paul Millsap scored 29 points in a matchup that could play to Atlanta’s advantage.
It looks increasingly likely that the Cavs will have to figure out their best lineups and approaches series-by-series this postseason, because the team as currently formed has little to rely on other than the otherworldly talents of LeBron James. As we learned on Friday, those talents still mean a great deal. They just don’t appear to rise to the level where Cleveland expected to be. Though, if you listen to Kyrie, they still plan to get there.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
