CLEVELAND: One school of thought has it that the Cavaliers need their undefeated run in the playoffs to end.
Whether to ease the pressure before the NBA Finals, especially if they’re headed for a rematch with the defending champion Golden State Warriors, to provide a wake-up call as they sail through the Eastern Conference or to sharpen their focus, I can’t agree with the premise on any of those counts.
The pressure can’t get much worse than trying to end Cleveland’s 52-year championship drought. For the most part, the Cavs’ focus has been on point. The Eastern Conference isn’t nearly as competitive as the West, but the Detroit Pistons and Toronto Raptors are loaded with young talent and those teams may be only a couple of years away from making some noise in the postseason.
For a little over a half, the Raptors proved to be much more scrappy in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals Thursday at Quicken Loans Arena, disrupting the Cavs’ rhythm on offense and slowing their pace. But with LeBron James recording his first triple-double of the postseason and the 15th of his career with 23 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists in 34 minutes, the Cavs improved to 10-0 in the playoffs with a 108-89 victory.
The Cavs were already the first Eastern Conference team to open the playoffs with nine consecutive victories, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. In that category they joined four Western Conference teams — the Los Angeles Lakers of 1982, ’89 and 2001 and the 2012 San Antonio Spurs. Those Spurs went 10-0 before losing four consecutive games to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the conference finals.
At the morning shoot-around, James debunked the suggestion that the Cavs needed to face some adversity with a loss.
“No, I don’t think we have to lose. We don’t want to lose,” James said. “We want to win every game that we step on the floor. We’ve been challenged in this postseason multiple times by Detroit and also by Atlanta in the first two series. We just persevered and were able to come back from it and win those games.
“So, we don’t want to lose. That’s not our mindset, should never be our mindset. I don’t get, people say you need to lose a game to go through something. I think we’ve gone through some things. If we happen to lose a game we have to be able to bounce back from it, but that’s not our mindset.”
To no one’s surprise, coach Tyronn Lue agreed with the four-time league MVP.
“I’ve never really experienced a wake-up call with a loss,” said Lue, who played guard in the NBA for 14 seasons. “We’ve had two tough series. I thought Detroit played us well three out of four games, Atlanta played us tough two out of the four games. They had a one-point lead with I think a minute 13 seconds [to play]. We’ve been tested but we’ve been able to maintain our composure and win the games.”
James came out as if he was angered by the question. He backed up those words with 17 points, seven rebounds and eight assists in the first half. He scored or assisted on 20 of the Cavs’ first 22 points, the only exception a driving layup by Kyrie Irving off a Kevin Love assist. Even as James dominated, with the Big Three all hitting double figures by halftime, the Raptors led in the first quarter.
That was expected since the Raptors came in 6-0 in the playoffs following a loss, including victories in two possible elimination games.
The Cavs were far from perfect, especially at the free-throw line. Their 33 percent 3-point shooting percentage was well below the 45.5 they hit in the first nine playoff games. The Raptors tried to get physical early, but failed to rattle the Cavs.
The Cavs are not a team that needs adversity. In the past two seasons, they’ve had enough to last for years — 2015 postseason injuries to Love and Irving and J.R. Smith’s two-game suspension against the Celtics, Iman Shumpert’s surprising wrist injury to start the 2015-16 training camp, the firing of coach David Blatt this season, the questions about their chemistry.
If Richard Jefferson’s Snapchat video of the team’s dance party held in Kevin Love’s basement during their recent eight-day layoff is any indication, the Cavs are bonding just fine through success.
Coming into the playoffs, they were seen as a team with a fragile psyche. Their playoff start is just what they need to raise their confidence, both in themselves and rookie coach Lue. They’ve learned they can win playing multiple styles. A different player can lead them every night. They proved that they’re more than just the Big Three, with Smith and Channing Frye providing big lifts and Tristan Thompson being his indispensable playoff self.
The Cavs’ momentum is building, the team’s will to end the long-suffering city’s title despair taking on a tangible feeling. I see no good a loss would do.
Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her blog at www.ohio.com/marla. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ.