Cavaliers Top Warriors: Lessons Learned from Clash of NBA Elite
How long ago it seems that the Cleveland Cavaliers looked like a confused mess, struggling to get a foothold in the mediocre Eastern Conference.
After a month and a half of dominance, the Cavs put together their finest performance to date, with a season-defining victory against the Western Conference’s best team, Golden State.
The 110-99 victory saw LeBron James put up a season-high 42 points, Kyrie Irving add 24 of his own and the Cavs hold Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson to a combined 31 points.
With just over a month left until the start of the playoffs, Cleveland looks nearly unstoppable and could be in position to ride that momentum to a championship.
Here are three takeaways from Thursday’s win for the Cavaliers.
LeBron is heavily entrenched in the race for MVP
Lets get this out of the way up front. LeBron James is the best basketball player in the league and there is absolutely no debate to be had.
But there is a difference between winning the MVP and being the NBA’s best. Just being the best doesn’t automatically make you the favorite for the award; you also have to factor in how important a player is to his team, and how good that team has performed because of him.
For a good majority of the season so far, the MVP race has been a dead-heat between two players: Golden State’s Curry and Houston’s James Harden. While pundits battled back and forth about which player deserved the award and for what reason, statistical or otherwise, James was quietly making a late push to catch up with the two young guards.
After Thursday’s 42-point outburst, he is officially back in contention, and he might very well have taken a lead against his competitors.
When it comes down to it, it will be hard to ignore the eight-game stretch James missed with an injury, during which the Cavaliers only managed one win. But that could also be seen as a positive for him. Sure he missed some time, but Cleveland’s performances during that time proved how important he is to the team’s success on any given night.
If I had to put my money on it, I’m still going with Harden as the favorite to take home his first MVP Award, but James is back to front-runner status, a scary prospect for anybody hoping to take home the trophy.
The Cavaliers might be the favorite to win it all
How crazy is it that less than two months ago the Cleveland Cavaliers had fallen to 19-20, were dealing with an injured and possibly unhappy James and looked to be on the verge of collapse?
After last night’s huge victory against Golden State, though, all those questions that circled the team in the first half of the season have been wiped away and replaced with one: Is this the year the Cavs finally get over the hump and win an NBA title?
Winners of 18 of their last 20, Cleveland is the hottest team in the NBA and proved it isn’t just thriving on the weaker half of the league, but can compete with the NBA’s best. Wins against Oklahoma City, Portland and the Clippers were signs that the Cavs were up to the challenge of beating the best teams in the West, but Golden State was definitive proof.
If the Cavs can comfortably beat the team widely perceived as the best in the NBA, it is time to anoint them as the favorites to take home the biggest prize. Sure, Atlanta is still an unbelievable nine games ahead of Cleveland in the standings, and a potential seven-game series against the Hawks in the conference finals would be a huge road block, but as of now it is tough to see any team beating Cleveland.
James is on top of the world right now, Kevin Love has looked more consistent since the All-Star break and Kyrie is Kyrie. If things keep rolling as they have for the past month and a half, don’t be surprised if the title makes its way to Quicken Loans Arena.
The Western Conference won’t dominate the NBA Finals
For so long this season, the Eastern Conference has seemed like a drawn-out audition process, with the eventual winner being awarded the opportunity to be blown out by whichever team survives the West in the NBA Finals.
With so many great teams in the league’s better half, it seemed the only hope the East had at an NBA title came from Atlanta, or the Western Conference champ being so battered and bruised that the Finals were just too much.
But as Cleveland proved Thursday, there is hope outside of the Hawks for a title from the Eastern Conference. The Raptors have their own shot at Golden State tonight, and although the Bulls' chances have diminished with the loss of Derrick Rose, it wouldn’t be a shock to see any of the East’s top three teams win the championship this summer.
The balance of power probably isn’t going to shift any time soon, and the East is still going to send two teams with losing records to the playoffs this year while the West has two with winning records miss out, but it is a sign of hope that the darkness won’t last forever.
