Mark WiedmerThe question was not without merit.
With Cleveland having just squeaked past visiting Indiana 109-108 Saturday afternoon in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series, a reporter asked Cavaliers point guard Kyrie Irving if the 2016 NBA champions felt at least a wee bit vulnerable.
“(Heck), no,” Irving replied emphatically. “Not going into the game with the group that we have.”
Any fan or foe of the LeBron James Gang can read that quote one of two ways, especially since the confounding Cavs entered the postseason on a four-game losing streak, their record since March 1 a somewhat troubling 10-14.
The pessimists may rightly view such struggles as a strong sign the Eastern Conference’s No. 2 seed is gassed, delusional and headed for an early exit.
The optimists – and there are many since James and Irving dug their teammates out of a 3-1 hole against Golden State last year in the NBA Finals, a task made a tad easier by Warriors forward Draymond Green’s Game 5 suspension – will say the Cavs have merely been resting for the postseason. They’ll rightly use Cleveland’s 114-91 trouncing of Boston in Boston on April 5 – a game that momentarily moved the Cavs over the Celtics in the conference race – as proof these guys can still turn it on whenever needed or wanted.
And there may yet be much truth in that. The Cavs certainly looked capable of such grand work heading into Saturday’s fourth quarter, their lead a comfortable 10 points.
But as the final seconds ticked away, not only was that lead down to the final score, Indiana had the ball with a chance to win on Cleveland’s floor and neutralize the Cavs’ home-court advantage in the best-of-seven series. Alas, the Pacers couldn’t free Paul George for a shot, and C.J. Miles’ 14-footer at the horn was short.
Said James matter-of-factly of the narrow escape: “He missed. We won.”
But still needing three more wins against Indiana to advance, does Cleveland really look like a team capable of returning to the finals for a third straight season and winning it all for a second straight?
The quick answer is no. Then again, the champs do still have James, the best player on the planet. His 32 points, 13 assists and six rebounds against the Pacers are further proof that as long as he’s healthy and focused, eliminating the Cavs is tougher than ridding the world of cockroaches or kudzu.
That doesn’t mean they can’t be beat before the title series. It certainly doesn’t mean they’ll outlast the best of the West, whether that be the Golden State Warriors, the San Antonio Spurs, the Houston Rockets or that one-man gang out of Oklahoma City known as the Westbrook Triple-Doubles.
But Cleveland’s recent body of work does seem to point to the margin for error being smaller than a year ago. It might be smaller than even the top-seeded Celtics’, despite Cleveland’s rousing victory inside Boston Garden 12 days ago.
Theoretically, you can only reboot so many times. The Cavs have been recharging themselves, at least emotionally, for months. At some point, the energy required to do that over and over again drains you. At some point you go to call on it, and it just isn’t there.
Could that do in the Cavs this time around? We don’t know. LeBron is the outlier of all theories. He proved that a year ago with significant help from fellow alpha dog Irving. He can almost single-handedly destroy the best of opposing game plans.
Yet whatever ultimately happens in the East and the West, the unbridled joy of the NBA postseason was shockingly derailed almost before it began by the tragic news that Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas’s 22-year-old sister Chyna was killed in a single-car accident early Saturday morning.
Once more, the proper placement of sports in our daily lives was harshly placed on our doorsteps, and only a day after we learned that former NFL tight end Todd Heap accidentally killed his 3-year-old daughter while moving a truck in the family’s driveway.
So whichever teams advance in these playoffs, these games aren’t life and death. They are a diversion from life and death. Nothing more.
That said, these playoffs will be more enticing to the masses, the television ratings far more certain to soar if James and the Cavs hang around until the finals for a third straight spring.
The next chance to advance that scenario comes tonight in Cleveland.
“I’m happy how emotional we was,” James said after Saturday’s win. “I’m happy with the energy and the effort.”
If he continues to be happy with those intangibles, a three-peat NBA Finals matching Golden State and Cleveland is far more likely to happen than not.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.