Are the Cleveland Cavaliers the Beast of the East?

I want to start by saying I was born, raised, and still live in Cleveland, so I do have a slight bias towards the Cavs.

I also must admit, however, that I was scared after watching the Cavs drop two straight to the Wizards and Magic.

I had the same misgivings that the national talk shows and columnists had.

Did they peak too early?  Was the team breaking down?  Are they not the team they had appeared to be during that 13-game win streak?

Now, against my better judgment, I had already started to get my hopes up that this could possibly be the year I get a championship. After the two losses I became self-conscious, and decided that I would go and look at the numbers and decide for myself what this team could possibly do in this year's playoffs.

The first thing I wanted to look at was the Cavs' fifteen losses and see what that would say about this season. The most glaring stat I found was that only three of their fifteen losses have come against teams that will not make this year's NBA playoffs. Two of them have come from their newest bitter rival, the Wizards—and one of those was the infamous “Crab Dribble” game which we lost by two. The other was a game at Indiana in which we lost by a single point.

This is impressive, because that means we showed up even against the bad teams. By comparison, the Celtics lost six games against non-playoff teams, and the Lakers have lost four.  The only team that has done better than the Cavs is the Magic, who have loss only two games both against the Raptors.

The next thing I saw is that are longest losing streak this season is two games, which has now happened twice. The Celtics have had three losing streaks of two or more games, including a four-game losing streak. The Lakers have had four losing streaks of two. Once again the Magic have matched us—they have also had two two-game losing streaks.

To see how good a team is, you need to look at their losses and see what that say.  In my opinion, I have to say the Magic's losses look a lot better then any of the “Big Four.”

The next thing I went and looked at was the Big Four’s record against each other. This is probably the best-known stat—the Cavs are two for six, with one game against Boston to go. This is the most damming stat of them all, because they are the best team and the Cavs apparently cannot beat them.

The Lakers have also been the only team this season to beat the Cavs at home. The Celtics are 4-5, the Lakers are 4-2, and the Magic are 6-3. Those of you who can do quick math already know the Lakers and Magic have a winning percentage of 66 percent. This is yet another category that the Cavs are unable to compete in.

The stats above indicate that the Cavs are certainly not the best team in the NBA right now. However, there is a something else to take into account—the superstars!

LeBron, Garnett (he is your number-one star, Boston), Kobe, and Superman. I looked at the four major stats—point, rebounds, assists, and blocks. LeBron (points and assists) and Dwight (blocks and rebounds) split this category. In the lesser-known stats, James dominates in the efficiency ratings, and is probably the likely MVP of the NBA this year. Kobe has three rings and Garnett is the reigning NBA champ.

This matters, but one thing must be said: The Cavs—and more specifically, LeBron James—step it up in the playoffs. In 2007 alone he scored the last 25 points in Game Six of the Eastern Conference finals, which led to an unexpected NBA Finals appearance, and led us to Game Seven against the Celtics last season.

Overall, I believe the Cavaliers are in big trouble when the playoffs roll around in the next couple weeks.

The Magic are seemingly the best team going into the playoffs, as they are tied for the best record against the Big Four. Dwight Howard is a superstar, and can dominate a game. But he is not strong towards the end of games due to his poor free-throw shooting.

The Magic haven’t had very many losing streaks, don’t lose meaningless games, and are going to have a good match up against the 76ers or Bulls. Their biggest problem is they will most likely have to beat both Boston and Cleveland to go to the Finals.

The Cavs still have a great chance. LeBron James can win any game any night and that alone should not be taken for granted. They are unbeatable at home and to be fair the playoffs are much different then a game against Boston in November.

As I said when I started this article, it has been 65 years since Cleveland has had a champion.  That’s my parents life time. I wanted to see that everyone had to be wrong about the Cavs , we were the best team in the East, but I found this not to be true.

I do believe we can make it in the playoffs and have a great run, but if you stay unbiased the Magic must be the favorite in the Eastern Conference.