CLEVELAND: It won’t be long now until LeBron James slides another ring on his finger and looks to the sky as another banner he all but stitched together is hoisted into history. Meanwhile, the rest of the Eastern Conference is back at work trying to think of something, anything, to keep James out of the NBA Finals.
James has spent more than half his career playing in the Finals — seven of his 13 years, including each of the past six. Try as they might, no one else in the East has been able to stop him. James has eliminated 12 of the East’s 15 teams at various points in his career. The only three he hasn’t beaten are the two teams he has played for, the Cavs and Heat (he has never faced either in the postseason), and the Orlando Magic, who eliminated James in the 2009 conference finals in his only playoff meeting against them.
Otherwise, James has taken down five different teams in the conference finals in the past six years, from the Chicago Bulls to the Boston Celtics, the Indiana Pacers (twice), Atlanta Hawks and most recently the Toronto Raptors, whom James and the Cavs eliminated last spring in six games.
“He just took over. He took it to another level. Just mentally, physically, defensively, offensively, he wasn’t going to let them lose,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said recently. “He canceled Christmas.”
Like Casey, the rest of the East is longing for the day James isn’t dominating their conference. Whether he was in Miami or Cleveland, no one else has been able to close the sizable gap between James and the rest of the East. In fact, that gap appears to be widening. The Cavs open this season as overwhelming favorites to win the East and return for an NBA Finals three-quel against the Golden State Warriors.
The Cavs opened as 1-2 favorites in the East and are now 1-4, meaning gamblers would have to bet $4 to win $1. The next closest team in the East is the Celtics at 8-1, according to Westgate Las Vegas Superbook. The league’s general managers seem to agree, since 29 of the 30 chose the Cavs to win the East for the third time in as many years since James returned.
“I think success should be driven and it should drive you to even more and more. That’s just the main thing, don’t become complacent,” James said. “We put together a good team, our GM has put together a great team, our owners have done what they needed to do. For us, it’s up to us to just continue to go out and work the process.”
That process has been very good to James, who has taken advantage of a weakened East throughout parts of his career. The talent gap between the East and West closed considerably last season, and although the middle and bottom of the conference continues to strengthen, there is no one left at the top to challenge James and the Cavs.
The Raptors return most of their core from a team that won the division, the Celtics added a big piece in center Al Horford and the Knicks retooled their roster around Carmelo Anthony and Kristaps Porzingis. Aging stars like Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah should return the Knicks to the playoffs, but it’s hard to build a case that they have the pieces to take down James, who hasn’t lost a conference series since 2009.
“In order to get to the Finals, you have to go through Cleveland and go through LeBron,” Washington Wizards coach Scott Brooks said. “He’s been here. He’s been a fixture in this conference and he’s not going away.”
Ask some of the East coaches how to topple him, however, and no one has a very good answer. He’s still in his prime, he’s surrounded by All-Stars Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving and he’s backed by an owner willing to outspend every other owner regardless of the league’s tax rules.
“You have to compete against them,” said Brooks, who lost his only shot at a championship when James and the Heat swept his Oklahoma City Thunder in 2012. “They’re definitely one of the best teams in basketball. They have a lot of great experience and a lot of good players. They’re deep. But they still have to go out and win game after game like every other team is trying to do.”
Not exactly a winning blueprint to success.
League executives polled in Vegas over the summer liked the moves the Indiana Pacers made, signing Al Jefferson and trading for Jeff Teague and Thaddeus Young. The Bulls retooled with Dwyane Wade and Rajon Rondo and the Raptors’ big move was retaining shooting guard DeMar DeRozan. The Raptors will be better for taking the Cavs to six games last season, but not even Casey is convinced they’re ready to topple the league’s reigning king.
“I think we’re still chasing those guys,” Casey said. “We’re climbing, climbing, climbing. I don’t know if we’re on their level or not. We played Cleveland tough in the regular season last year, but it’s a different animal once you get into playoff basketball. ... One day. One day.”
Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at www.ohio.com/cavs. Follow him on Twitter www.twitter.com/JasonLloydABJ.