All Hail The King: LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers are NBA Champions
Remember this when LeBron James someday retires. Remember that he promised to bring a Championship back to Cleveland and that with the game – no, the title – on the line he was able to do something that no other player on the court could have done. He did this:
That may not be the moment that appears on all the news stories and even a few of the highlight packages might overlook it but that was the play that defined all that we always knew about LeBron James and yet for some reason forgot to admit.
Look at the where Steph receives the ball, LBJ ain’t even in the frame. And Steph goes and throws it further from LeBron with Iggy making the sprint down the right edge after dishing it to Steph in the first place. Iguodala rises for the layup and suddenly there James is upon him, like a wolf on the hunt, getting there just in time to crush that ball against the backboard and keep the scores level. It was unbelievable, nobody else in the game can make that play, even after all these years at the top that was unique LeBron. The speed that he covered the court with was insane, the hands to be able to make the block, the physicality that makes him so formidable. LeBron James has always been the most comprehensively tooled player of his generation but we ignore that sometimes.
We also forget just how dominant he can be, how competitive, determined and resilient. It’s not only that he can make the play… it’s that he does. Obviously there’s no greater motivation than the final two minutes of a game seven in the Finals but that also means he’s been doing this for eight months without hardly a break, culminating in a seven game series that ranks up there as arguably the best basketball that he has ever played. Exhausting. To think that people once called him a choker, what a travesty. The desperation to charge that play down is what separates the greats from the all-time legends. When it mattered the most, LeBron James found a way. The Cavaliers found a way. And the Warriors didn't, which was the difference in the end.
It was LeBron that led the series in all five of the major stats. It was LeBron that won the unanimous MVP, playing so damn well that there was serious chat that he ought to win it even if the Cavs did not. But it was Kyrie Irving that matched him point for point in the game that swung the series – where each of them banked 41 on a record night – and it was Kyrie that hit the winning shot in game seven. Plus it was Kevin Love that led the team with a +19 while on the court in G7, not to mention a couple superb defensive plays late on. And it was Tristan Thompson whose defensive versatility caused the Warriors so many problem. Not to mention J.R. Smith, Richard Jefferson, Matt Dellavedova and all those other guys. If his first stint in Cleveland taught us anything it’s that even the best can’t do it alone. This was a supporting cast built to win championships with a coach in Tyronn Lue hired to beat the Warriors. LeBron gets the spotlight as the star players always do, as Steph Curry would have done, but each and every person involved deserves this. Except maybe Anderson Varejao, who left the team mid-season and gets a ring despite playing for the opposition, that’s a bit weird.
But especially Richard Jefferson, who’ll probably now retire and he’ll do so with one of those fabled rings – after losing in the Finals with the Nets in both of his first two seasons and never making the Finals again until now, in his fifteenth and last season. He was signed with the Mavs before this campaign but when the request to join the Cavs came, the Mavs released him from his pre-contract. Shout out to them too.
And most of all, to the city of Cleveland. So often the butt of the joke, without a title since 1964. Well, they’re not laughing anymore. At least not until the NFL season starts…
There were 20 different lead changes in this game seven. Only fitting for a series that swung like a pendulum – at 3-1 up, there seemed no way the Warriors could possibly lose. Not only that but they were going to do it easy. And then Draymond was suspended, finally, for taking a whack at LeBron James’ nuts. Two kicks to Steven Adams’ own weren’t enough but they did put him on the brink and the NBA’s patience overflowed the cup when he had a go at LBJ.
You know what they say: If you come at The King, you’d better not miss. LeBron hasn’t been King for the last couple years in the public eye but that’s only because they’re so used to what he does. Steph Curry’s last two seasons have been undeniable but LeBron was huge this season, even despite the clear focus being on building for the playoffs – while the Warriors chased and caught up with history on their way to 73 wins. With Draymond sitting out the fifth game, the Cavaliers came storming back. LeBron scored 41, Kyrie scored 41 and the Cavaliers pulled one back on the brink of elimination.
Draymond returned for the sixth but the tide had turned. LeBron scored another 41 while Kyrie set the tone early on as the Cavs took a 31-11 lead out of the first quarter. On their own home court, they once again held on to tie the series right back up. But the ultimate game was in Golden State, who had barely lost a home matchup all season. Still it seemed as though The Curse would continue. After all, no team had ever come back from 3-1 down in a Finals series before. No team ever.
The thing about the Warriors is that their whole identity is constructed around jump shooting, and shooters can get cold. Granted, in Steph and Klay they have two of the finest, silkiest jumpers in NBA history. It was Klay Thompson that reclaimed control in the Western Conference finals with his 41 point night in G6 vs Oklahoma City. Legendary shooting to spark a stunning comeback. (41 was a common number these last few weeks, hey? You know who wears the #41 jersey? Saint Dirk Nowitzki. No point, just saying).
But just as they managed to overcome the Thunder in a monstrous struggle between two superb teams, they then fell to the Cavaliers in the same, only inverse, circumstances (the Thunder blew a 3-2 lead, the Warriors then a 3-1 lead). Golden State is incredible at coming back from deficits just as they’re incredible at running them up and that’s the way that their games tend to go. They win big and when they lose they often lose big. It happened against the Thunder and it happened in this series too.
Because it’s their outside shooting that they rely upon, they can find themselves stuck to that approach, crossing over and back and over again only to pop the kind of long three point attempt that any other team’s coach would be pulling their hair out over. But Steph and Klay have made a career of making those shots. Perhaps a team with a more fundamental approach could have been able to grind out more possessions late in the game. Perhaps. But the Warriors did themselves true by sticking with what had gotten them here – the problem is that jump-shooting can fluctuate and the further you are from the hoop, the more the slightest little twitch can prove a fatality. Nothing screws with rhythm more than pressure and there is no more pressure-filled occasion that a championship decider.
Early in G7 it was Draymond Green doing all that he could to make up for his absence the other day, scoring 22 points with 5/5 3pt shooting in the first half. The Dubs led by eight at that time but the Cavs turned that around to be up as many as seven in the third quarter. By the final frame it was anybody’s game though, the Warriors leading 86-85 and the game just waiting for someone to take the crucial initiative.
Except that nobody did. LeBron put the Cavs in front but after nursing a tiny lead for about five minutes, a Steph triple tied us at 83-all with a shade under seven minutes remaining in the season. It was a deep one, stepping right back to get it over the reaching arms of Tristan Thompson and, as so often has been the case these last two years, that felt like the moment that would spark the Warriors inevitable run. They always do it, no single-digit lead is ever safe at Oracle Arena. And yet… it wasn’t. Klay Thompson gave GSW the lead with a jumper after a J.R. Smith missed three before Draymond put back a missed Curry floater (which might have been a deliberate pass) for a four point lead. LeBron then drew three foul shots off of some over-eager defence from Festus Ezeli – playing bigger minutes here with Andrew Bogut out hurt – and he made all three to close it to one.
Then Steph Curry did this:
And then LeBron James did this:
With 4:39 on the clock, Klay would tie it back up at 89-89 and that’s when the nerves seemed to take over. Both teams immensely aware of the occasion and each player desperate to be the one who would make that decisive play and write their name into history. These are the championship minutes. Instead it would be three minutes and forty-nine seconds until another point was scored. It was in that drought that LeBron made The Block.
Eventually it was Kyrie Irving that got one to land, right over the top of a switched-on Steph. Curry completely missed a triple to tie and LeBron James would find himself at the line shooting two soon enough. Had he made the crunching dunk that he’d gone up for then we’d have been witness to one of the defining plays in the history of the sport but Draymond Green was able to get up and foul him. James landed hard on his wrist and appeared in a lot of pain, though he was able to make the second FT for a two-possession lead. 10 seconds left.
Curry was the deserving MVP of the league this season, the unanimous MVP in fact. His playoffs didn’t see him reach the same heights as superior defensive teams and the odd injury limited his approach but the numbers still read impressively. The problem was that up against what LeBron was doing, impressive wasn’t enough. He said himself that he needed to play one of the games of his life but instead he scored just 17 points, shooting 4/14 from deep. Klay added 14 points, 2/10 from deep. 18 combined threes missed. Curry missed his last five field goal attempts.
Similarly, the loss of Andrew Bogut hit them hard as the Cavs bossed the boards 48-39. While Bogie was never a leading player this season, he was a crucial one as he gives them the size to mix it up with their shooter-heavy line-up and more traditional fives. Anderson Varejao and Festus Ezeli combined for one point and one rebound in nearly 20 minutes of action at centre – while Harrison Barnes’ free agency prospects are a little less lucrative following a 5/32 FG streak across the last three games. And they were getting him good looks, too.
Yet at the same time it was Tristan Thompson’s effectiveness that made Ezeli and Varejao look so bad. It was Tyronn Lue’s gameplan that caught Curry up in endless pick and rolls, tiring him out on defence and really getting at him with their bigger dudes. Against the Splash Brothers it was Kyrie Irving that made the decisive shot and with the team facing near-certain elimination, it was LeBron James that pillaged a 27 point, 11 rebound, 11 assist triple-double on the biggest stage of the sport.
Meanwhile it was Steph Curry that missed from three with seconds remaining and it was the Cleveland Cavaliers that now celebrate the NBA title. A 24-0 start, a 73-win season, a unanimous MVP… and the Golden State Warriors fall two field goals short. That’s how slim the margins can be and nobody knows that better than the citizens of Cleveland.