CLEVELAND:
It has been more than six months since the Golden State Warriors celebrated their championship in the visitor’s locker room at Quicken Loans Arena, but some of the wounds still linger.
“The memories will come back as soon as we walk into the building,” LeBron James said. “But also understand that it’s 1 of 82. I’m not going to put everything into this game.”
James repeated his “1 of 82” mantra all day Wednesday, but this game still matters. Guys like Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving didn’t get to play in the Finals because of injuries (Irving was hurt in overtime of Game 1). Then there is Iman Shumpert, who played but was hampered by shoulder and groin injuries.
“I’m salty,” Shumpert said of the Finals loss. “I’m happy that we’re playing the Golden State Warriors.”
The Warriors have been hovering over the Cavs for the first two months of the season. From the Finals loss to their historic winning streak, the Cavs have been asked about them for weeks. Now for at least one afternoon, the talking is over.
“There’s a lot that goes into that game being a Finals rematch,” Love said. “I think like all teams in the league, we get to see where we stack up against the best team. They have the best record, they’ve played the best and they’re very hungry even after having won last year. It’s going to be a chance for us to compete, see where we’re at and hopefully go out there and have a great showing.”
James earlier this season called the Warriors “the most healthy team I’ve ever seen in NBA history.” That was back when the Cavs were dealing with injuries to Irving, Shumpert and even Timofey Mozgov.
The Cavs still aren’t completely whole. David Blatt said this week Shumpert isn’t quite 100 percent following a groin injury last week, while Irving is still on a minute restriction and clearly fighting to get his timing back.
Irving shot 1-of-7 in Wednesday’s win against the New York Knicks and is shooting 6-of-19 in two games since returning from knee surgery. He missed his first five shots in his debut and his last six Wednesday, prompting a return to the court shortly after the conclusion of Wednesday’s win for a shooting session that lasted nearly an hour.
Still, the Cavs have an entire 15-man roster at their disposal for the first time in a year. Anderson Varejao tore his Achilles on Dec. 23 last year, and the Cavs seemed to have been scrambling to fill lineups ever since.
That isn’t the case with the Warriors, whose most severe injury this season has been to coach Steve Kerr. Their sparkling 27-1 record is marred only by a loss at the Milwaukee Bucks on the second night of a back-to-back, but they have rebounded with three more wins since that loss.
The Warriors’ winning streak reached the point where Cavs players privately wanted them to go unbeaten. J.R. Smith wasn’t as private, conceding he was disappointed after the Warriors lost because he wanted them undefeated on Christmas.
They’re not, and even a Cavs victory won’t erase the pain of another Finals loss. Nor will another defeat deliver such a crushing end.
“Friday will not be the end of our season like it was in June,” James said. “We play Saturday and then we play Monday and Tuesday. We want to play well, going against a great caliber team, the best team in our league right now, but it’s not like the season ends if we lose or if we win, whatever the case may be.”
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.