This wasn’t a boxing match – at least not in the traditional sense. The Cleveland Cavaliers and Indiana Pacers were trading blows all throughout their…
This wasn’t a boxing match – at least not in the traditional sense.
The Cleveland Cavaliers and Indiana Pacers were trading blows all throughout their Eastern Conference finals first round matchup, LeBron James and his band of underachievers on one side and Victor Oladipo and his spirited group on the other. Six games in, and it was quite clear – yet again – that James remains the best player in the game.
Put him in a ring with any other NBA star, in other words, and it’s a sucker’s bet to choose the other guy.
So why was I the only addlebrained member of our staff to pick against him heading into the Cavs’ 105-101 win at Quicken Loans Arena on Sunday? Because I didn’t trust Cleveland’s “others,” as Shaquille O’Neal so often calls every team’s role players. Heck, even James’ fellow All-Star, forward Kevin Love, didn’t look trustworthy as he continued to deal with the thumb injury that re-aggravated in Game 2.
Say what you will about the NBA’s star-obsessed spotlight, but this remains a five-man game. The supporting cast matters a great deal, and James would be the first to tell you how much they matter to even the most transcendent of talents.
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So yes, James entered this one having won four consecutive Game 7s while playing as if he wore an ‘S’ across his chest almost every time. As our Jeff Zillgitt reported from Cleveland, James is now 5-2 in Game 7s with eye-popping production in those do-or-die games (34.9 points, 9.3 rebounds and 5.1 assists).
And yes, Indiana has a long history of disappointment when it comes to facing James’ teams in playoff situations. For anyone counting, that’s five times in the past six Pacers postseasons that their playoff run has ended at the hands of a LeBron team in either Miami or Cleveland.
But before Cavs coach Ty Lue channeled his Billy Joel, starting familiar face Tristan Thompson after he had only played 24 minutes in the series because, well it was a matter of trust, the cast of characters who had shared the floor with James in this series had been nothing short of awful. Not only had James led his team in scoring (32.7 points per game, with Love second at 11), rebounding (10.3) and assists (7.8, with George Hill second with 1.7) and blocks (1.2), but breathers on the bench were simply out of the question.
Chew on this…
The Pacers looked capable of exploiting the Cavs’ unbalanced roster, but give James’ teammates credit for turning this tide in a major way in the finale. When James sat for less than four minutes at the start of the fourth quarter, Cleveland went on a 10-4 run to extend its lead to eight (Hill was fouled on a three-pointer and hit all three free throws; Love had five points and Green two free throws).
The James/no James net rating numbers in Game 7? A plus-2.7 mark with him and plus-61.9 without.
All of which is to say that I, and anyone else who counted James out, was wrong. Consider this a mea culpa inspired by our recent NBA A to Z podcast visit with the Portland Trail Blazers’ C. J. McCollum, a journalism graduate from Lehigh University who advocated for more accountability in the sports media profession.
But while this wasn’t my first media mistake and won’t be my last (this week), the truth is that the Cavs living or dying here was never really about James at all.
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