The Cleveland LeBrons Are Back
When I panic too early in an NBA season again next year, can someone please remind me that LeBron James is on the Cleveland Cavaliers? Also, it doesn’t hurt that 16 teams get the “honor” of playing in the NBA playoffs. And maybe my panic wasn’t totally unjustified. Sasha Pavlovic held out. Anderson Varejao held out and said he didn’t want to play in Cleveland anymore. Larry Hughes looked horrendous and then got hurt. Right after an impressive win where LeBron willed the Cavs to victory over the Boston Celtics, LeBron got hurt. The Cavs lost six in a row and I was starting to be convinced that the season was over.
That might have been a bit premature. Pavlovic came back. Varejao signed and said he wanted to put the past behind him. Larry Hughes got better, health-wise and talen-wise. Finally, LeBron came back from his finger injury. Since LeBron has come back from injury, the Cavs are 6-5 but they are getting better as they have one three out of the last four games including an impressive performance last night against a much improved Atlanta Hawks team.
The team is finally playing a bit of defense, although you wouldn’t know it from the score – 94 to 98 – in favor of the Cavs. The Hawks were bombing threes and making them at the end of the game, which accounted for the high score. Joe Johnson of the Hawks was 4-6 from three point land including two huge threes with very high difficulty at the end of the game.
The problem was that he was facing the most untradeable player in the NBA according to Bill Simmons. LeBron started slowly, but scored 36 points. He scored 32 points in the second half and 19 in the 4th quarter. Anderson Varejao played that crazy, energetic style off the bench and picked up 11 rebounds. Larry Hughes shut up his critics (myself included) for another night as he was 6-10 from the field. Slowly but surely, this team appears that they might be starting to play like they did last season.
And that is why I need someone to remind me about who LeBron James is next year when I panic early.
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LeBron is awfully good… but are the Cavs good enough to take out the Celtics in a series?
I couldn’t stomach two losses to Boston in the playoffs in a year.
I didn’t think the Cavs were good enough to beat Detroit last season and LeBron made me eat my words then too. By all accounts he has raised his game to another level this year, so I say anything is possible.
You would love to see the Cavs add any piece to the puzzle during the season, but even if they don’t, with continued health, they might have a shot to go deep into the playoffs with the horses on the roster.