Even Without Home-Court Edge, LeBron Faces Expectations of a Favorite, as Usual
ATLANTA — Attribute it to the lateness of the hour, or the season, but any pretense officially evaporated not long before midnight last Thursday in Chicago, any charade that LeBron James was supposed to finish second to anybody. It came with some comedy, as he was asked whether he considered his Cavaliers the underdogs in the upcoming Eastern Conference finals.
"Huh?" James said. "Underdog? Me?...I would never be an underdog. I think we have a great chance. That's what we're here for."
Rather, that's what he's here for, wherever here is, wherever he calls home, wherever he's scheduled to play.
That's the label he wants, but also the burden he bears.
Forever the favorite?
For one more series, anyway.
This Eastern Conference finals, against the Atlanta Hawks, represents the real referendum of James' first season in his second stint in Cleveland, determining whether that season should be characterized as a success or as slippage. After all, James left Miami as a conference champion four years running and, if he'd stayed, and especially if Pat Riley had added Pau Gasol as per the plan, he probably would have made it five. Further, during that four-year run, he ran into, and ultimately ran over, more experienced competition in the Eastern Conference finals than the team the Cavaliers take on now, one that is commendable for its style of play but not frightening by many of the measures of contenders.
It's not just that Atlanta lacks a takeover star. It's that it can't take much from the past.
Compare that to James' competition in the past three conference finals.
The 2011-12 Celtics had won a championship, and reached another NBA Finals, with the same core four of Rajon Rondo, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett. The 2014-15 Hawks have just one player, Paul Millsap, who has been even this far, as a part-time Western Conference finals participant with Utah in 2007.
The 2013-14 Pacers could call upon the confidence that came from nearly toppling James in two prior postseasons. Only Al Horford, Kyle Korver, Elton Brand and Thabo Sefolosha have ever faced James in a playoff series, none of which they've won. Oh, and the New York Police Department allegedly ensured that Sefolosha, whose defense would have been useful in this series, wouldn't get another shot.
Further, James had won 22 playoff series entering this postseason. The entire Hawks roster had won 31, and that's inflated by 15 series victories from the no-longer-available Sefolosha (nine) and the never-used Austin Daye, who played a total of 26 minutes while mostly watching the Grizzlies and Spurs win six series.
Take all of that into consideration, and it shouldn't surprise that the Hawks opened as roughly 2-1 underdogs in this series, even with home-court advantage, even with four All-Stars (not including the self-proclaimed "Junkyard Dog," DeMarre Carroll, who has been their best player for the past two months), even with all their starters available (as the Cavaliers still adjust to the absence of Kevin Love) and even though they won seven more games during the season.
It shouldn't surprise that some of the Hawks' biggest supporters—this observer included—have retraced some steps after watching them struggle to recapture their early-season rhythm, slogging past leaden Brooklyn and wounded Washington in the first two series.
Nor should it surprise anyone if a Hawks upset, should it occur, gets framed in the context of what the Cavaliers didn't do, rather than what the Hawks did. More specifically, it will be discussed in terms of what James didn't do, even if he did just about everything. This is how it traditionally goes for sports' highest-profile, most polarizing teams and people, whether the Cowboys, Patriots, Yankees, Lakers (in better days), Tiger Woods or James. It's always about them, not the other side, and what they failed to prove by falling short.
Even when Orlando overcame LeBron's most statistically supernatural series to advance to the NBA Finals in 2009, the national narratives remained focused on whether James could have—should have—done more, not on the merits of Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu.
Sure, James spent several months downplaying expectations, insisting that progress would come as slow as a shake through a straw, no matter how hard he sipped. Some bought in for a while. But once James recharged his batteries, and the Cavaliers reloaded their roster, and other East contenders started to crumble, all bets were off.
Well, other than the bets that were on him to excel regardless of any adversity, actual or imagined. The bets that are still on him. The bets that are his blessing and burden. Fewer of those bets would be made in the next round, should James and the Cavaliers get that far, and should Golden State eventually eliminate Houston as anticipated. The Warriors, now 76-17 in the regular season and playoffs, are a juggernaut of prime James-ian proportions, one win better through 93 contests than his 2008-09 Cavaliers (which lost in the Eastern Conference finals) and his 2012-13 Heat (which won the championship in seven games over San Antonio). Only the 1995-96 Bulls were more dominant through this point, a ridiculous 82-11.
It's safe to assume that the Warriors would be more than a slight favorite against the Cavaliers, which is what the Spurs were when they faced a less hobbled, more established Heat last June. Still, James didn't see himself as an underdog then, until the Spurs had put the finishing touches on an overwhelming performance.
He liked the Heat's chances, liked them for the same reason he always did, because, as he said during a 2014 second-round series against the Nets, "I'm on the team."
He likes the Cavaliers' chances now, in this series, and history suggests he should. Because he's on the team. But if he can get through this, he may need to learn to love life, however brief, as an underdog.
Ethan Skolnick covers the NBA for Bleacher Report and is a co-host of NBA Sunday Tip, 9-11 a.m. ET on SiriusXM Bleacher Report Radio. Follow him on Twitter, @EthanJSkolnick.
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