What's Wrong with the Cavaliers? Maybe the Celtics Are Just Better

So it has come to this.

LeBron James and his Cleveland Cavaliers stand on the precipice of yet another postseason defeat amid high expectations, and should the Cavaliers fall this time, the blame will be laid squarely at King James' feet.

The Cavaliers' 120-88 home trouncing by the Boston Celtics has exposed the Cavaliers' deepest flaws, and even if they are able to muster the courage to survive the Celtics, the chances of upsetting Orlando are slim to none.

Cleveland has been in this position before, but the stench you smell across the NBA is the bile slowly rising from the guts of all those who gave grave assurances this Cleveland team was different from last season's.

Well, take a moment to let your stomach settle down as the realization slowly dawns that while the Cavaliers are a team who has one star quality player in James, he is surrounded by a deep pool of strikingly average players.

During the regular season the Cavaliers were able to excel because James rarely had a bad outing, and it was harder to get a handle on the team based on single game snapshots.

But in the postseason, an opposing team has the benefit of studying tendencies and subtle nuances which could take a team out of their comfort zone, and the Celtics have done this masterfully.

It was actually a pretty simple task for Boston, and Paul Pierce broke it down to it's barest element when he said the only player on Cleveland's team that can hurt the Celtics is James.

And there is truth in that statement because who else on the Cavaliers' roster besides James can make the claim they are as talented as Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, or Rajon Rondo?

Pierce's statement plunges a little deeper beneath the surface when you consider most of the success from Cleveland players other than LeBron is derived directly from James' superior talents.

James exists as the Cavaliers' best facilitator, rebounder, defender, and scorer, so when a team is that dependent on one player, there are bound to be areas where an advantage can be gained.

And the Celtics have exploited this mostly with Rondo and if this series is defined by anything, then it's the inability of the Cavaliers to adjust to Boston and stop the bleeding.

The Cavaliers have also existed under the myth they are a great defensive team, but once again that is from a regular season perspective, because the deliberate offense the Celtics have demonstrated is unlike anything Cleveland seems familiar with.

Boston has come to the conclusion there is no one on the Cavaliers' roster capable of guarding Rondo, and this is something which wouldn't take on much significance during the regular season.

Rondo has carved up the Cavaliers' defense and he has been adept at getting his teammates involved, especially in the open court where he has been nearly unstoppable.

None of this may have mattered if James had been playing with the same intensity and focus he displayed in the regular season, but perhaps his elbow is bothering him more than he's letting on.

At any rate James' situation has exposed another flaw in Cleveland's approach, and this one is the most damning of all, because if James does not have an excellent game on each occasion he plays, the Cavaliers will lose.

Even when James plays great Cleveland is still susceptible to matchups and superior talent as last season's playoffs proved, but if James happens to have an off night, it will end in disaster for the Cavaliers.

Despite the experience and overall talent of the Celtics most observers felt they would merely serve as stepping stones on James' path to his first NBA championship, but instead they have proved what I knew all along.

For months I have preached about the differences between the regular season and the playoffs, and the fallacy in basing a team's postseason expectations on regular season success.

Cleveland was the perfect example of this logic last season, and unless they can overcome the enormous odds they are faced against, the Cavaliers will be a case study this season as well.

Boston looks to be the team with the superior talent, and as Kevin Garnett said, his team will treat Game Six like it's Game Seven, so the Cavaliers should expect no favors in Boston.

The Cavaliers can win in Boston as their Game Three victory will attest, but even if they are able to advance past the Celtics, their journey will most likely end before the NBA Finals.

Maybe after this season Cavaliers' fans will understand the NBA championship is not won in the regular season, and if James does decide to stay in Cleveland, maybe Danny Ferry will surround him with real talent.

If not, this is the future for the Cavaliers, and for some strange reason, it seems to mirror their past as well, because this team seems to be doing it's best to extend the endless misery for the people of Cleveland.