Cavs and LeBron on a roll
Seven straight wins. Tying the league-leading and much-dreaded Los Angeles Lakers for the longest streak thus far in NBA Season 2008-09. And counting.
This morning in Manila, live on your TV sets via BTV, the Cleveland Cavaliers embark on a road game against the New Jersey Nets, who’ll be fighting tooth and nail to edge out the Miami Heat from the eighth spot in the tight Eastern Conference. LeBron James and the Cavs are in for a dogfight after taking all their home games in the past two weeks.
Of course it’s still too early in the season. But already the shape of things to come is in the air, in our sights, steadily confirming our conviction that it looks to be the best possible chance for LeBron and the Cavs to get a title, a first NBA title. Should we eke out a road win today, we’ll register the longest win streak and tie the defending champs, the Boston Celtics, on top of the East.
It’ll be tough. Vince Carter always goes off whenever he meets up with LeBron James. And spitfire Devin Harris has returned from an injury, and instantly produced a couple of stellar games to lead the Nets in back-to-back wins over the hot-starting Atlanta Hawks in a home-and-away series. After starting 6-0, the Hawks have lost three straight. The Nets struggled early, but gained confidence and momentum with those two wins for a 4-5 card. A successful home stand against the visiting Cavs would put them at a .500 percentage.
These aren’t the same Nets the Cavs used to struggle against. The old triumvirate has been broken up, with Richard Jefferson traded to the Milwaukee Bucks and Jason Kidd to the plummeting Dallas Mavs. But Carter and Harris are a potent one-two punch, averaging 23 points each, and have lots of help from Kenyon Dooling, Yi Jianlian, Ryan Anderson, Jarvis Hayes, Josh Boone, Brook Lopez, and eventually, Eduardo Najera.
For their part, the Cavs have certainly benefited from the big trades made late last season, and more importantly, the off-season acquisition of scoring point guard Mo Williams. Now most everyone’s agreed that manager Danny Ferry and coach Mike Brown have finally assembled a supporting cast that makes it easier for The Chosen One to lead the team to the promised land.
It has shown. The Cavs are humming along fine for the start of the season, energizing The Bron to take the early lead in both scoring average (at close to 30) and efficiency, even as most GMs have predicted that King James should run away with the MVP crown.
Now opponents have to pick their poison. When they collapse on LBJ, he can kick away to any of three good shooting guards in Mo, Delonte West, and Boobie Gibson. The “Large Lithuanian” Zydrunas Ilgauskas has been strong in the post and with his perimeter shooting. “Z” will likely get back to the All-Star game come mid-season break.
He gets rebounding and defensive help from Ben Wallace, who doesn’t have to score at all. And the Brazilian “Wild Thing” that’s Andy Varejao has also been playing inspired ball as “the closer” in the paint for the last quarter, complementing Z’s starter status.
Shooters Wally Sczcerbiak and the still-struggling Sasha Pavlovic are fine spellers while LeBron rests on the bench, as long as Mo remains on the floor to direct traffic and create his own shots.
If the Cavs pull off a road win today, the next crucial set-to is tomorrow when they visit their old rivals, the Detroit Pistons. Here I’m prepared for us to lose, as it’s back-to-back on the road. And the Pistons are always a pain in the butt. It’ll be interesting to see, however, what the defense-oriented Cavs may have in store for Allen Iverson. Would AI be able to run all three Cavs guards to the ground, and have enough to finish past Big Ben and The Wild Thing?
A split in the two-game road series should suffice. The Cavs would still be on pace for a 60-win season and a crack at full homecourt advantage during the playoffs.
Are we tooting our horn too early? Maybe. The numbers don’t always work in a steady mode. Injuries can take a toll, and a bad spell can bring us back down to earth. But for now the team chemistry’s working and highly evident. Imperfect quarters, slacking off on defense, and sudden scoring droughts still plague my darling Cavs. But there’s still 7/8ths of the long season to get everyone tuned into a fine fever pitch, in time for the expected dragdown knockout playoffs against the Pistons and the Celtics.
I am not alone in heralding the next possible champs. The formerly cynical Charles Barkley (with regards the Cavs) now says he sees a Cavs-Lakers finale. The knowledgeable TV analyst Rick Kamla says it’ll be the Cavs versus the Hornets who are bannered by that backcourt genius Chris Paul.
I’ll go with Sir Charles. A Kobe-LeBron duel in the NBA Finals should serve as a fitting affirmation of the changing of the guard. And then The King should rule for sometime.
