Shirtless and smirking, LeBron James whipped a looping, two-handed shot from the corner baseline seats — behind the court, at least 8m feet away — and watched it sail, over the backboard and through the net.
Satisfied with his work, James strutted away, hands in the air, biceps bulging. The self-proclaimed King never looked more relaxed.
While the NBA’s other contenders were sweating through overtimes and seven-game series, James and the Cleveland Cavaliers were in virtual hibernation. They cruised through two rounds of playoffs without an ounce of anxiety or a loss. They played their last game eight days ago, leaving them to kill time with light practices and trick-shot competitions.
PHOTO: AFP
James’ remarkable shot was captured on film on Sunday afternoon, sometime before the Los Angeles Lakers’ Game 7 victory over Houston and Orlando’s Game 7 victory over Boston. It signaled the end of the Cavaliers’ extended recess. They open the Eastern Conference finals tonight against the Magic.
“The hard part is ahead of us,” Danny Ferry, the Cavaliers’ general manager, said during the lull last week.
The Magic was 2-1 against the Cavaliers this season and should provide much stiffer resistance than the Detroit Pistons or the Atlanta Hawks could muster.
Orlando has the East’s most imposing center, Dwight Howard, and two lengthy, sweet-shooting forwards: Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis. Those three combined for 56 points, 26 rebounds and 17 assists on Sunday as Orlando eliminated the defending champion Celtics.
The Cavaliers counter with James, the NBA’s most valuable player, and his usual assortment of underrated sidekicks, including Mo Williams, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Anderson Varejao.
For the Cavaliers, this has been a spectacular and oddly quiet postseason. They set a franchise record by sweeping the first two rounds and an NBA record by winning all eight games by double digits. Their average margin of victory: 16.8 points.
Yet despite their dominance, or perhaps because of it, the Cavaliers have been almost an afterthought.
The Celtics and the Chicago Bulls thrilled fans with an epic seven-game series in the first round. The Houston Rockets won their first playoff series in 12 years, and the Hawks won their first in 10 years. The once-mighty San Antonio Spurs were bounced in the first round. A referee’s blown call marred a game between Dallas and Denver and indirectly sparked a feud between the Mavericks’ owner, Mark Cuban, and the Nuggets’ Kenyon Martin. The playoff intrigue peaked again on Sunday as last year’s finals teams each played a Game 7, just hours apart.
TNT and ESPN have attracted record audiences, no thanks to the ratings-busting Cavaliers, whose dominance borders on boring.
James may be the NBA’s most riveting player, but he hasn’t enjoyed much air time in recent weeks.
“We just want to win the next game, man,” Ferry said with a chuckle. “It’s fine if we are under the radar, because I think we need to stay humble. We haven’t accomplished anything yet.”
The Cavaliers are gunning for their first championship and trying to end the city’s 45-year title drought. They have raised expectations almost daily. They went 26-5 in the first two months of the season, won their first 23 home games and finished with the league’s best record, 66-16.
For an encore, the Cavaliers dismantled the fading Pistons, their onetime rivals, then blasted the rising Hawks. While the Lakers have been criticized for a lack of intensity and for giving away games, the Cavaliers have been relentless and efficient.
“I don’t think it shows their dominance as much as it shows their sense of urgency is high,” said the NBA TV analyst Eric Snow, a former Cavaliers guard. “It shows the maturity of the team.”
Experience, talent and depth set this Cavaliers team apart from the one James led into the 2007 finals, when they were swept by the Spurs.
“You have a better LeBron James and you have a better Mike Brown,” Snow said, referring to the Cavaliers’ coach. “That right there in essence is the main key to their success.”
The 2007 squad had little scoring punch after James and was overly reliant on its defense. In Williams, who is averaging 14.8 points in the playoffs, the Cavaliers now have a reliable second option. They have also been strengthened by the additions of Delonte West, Wally Szczerbiak, Joe Smith and Ben Wallace.
“This is the best team we’ve had,” Ferry said. “I think our coaching staff has done as good a job as they’ve ever done. And we’re talented. We fit together. The chemistry’s real strong. Our players are all better.”
They have to be. Perhaps no franchise in the NBA feels as much pressure to win a championship now as the Cavaliers. James can become a free agent next year and every move is seen through that prism.
James coyly navigates the questions without ever dismissing them outright, leaving Cavaliers fans to fidget and fret. The debate has produced two opposing schools of thought on the meaning of a Cavaliers championship.
One theory holds that James will surely stay because no star player would walk away from a championship team. The other theory holds that James will surely leave because delivering a title to his hometown (he grew up in nearby Akron, Ohio) would ease any guilt over defecting.
“We’re focused on building the best team and organization we can,” Ferry said. “I’ll let you guys enjoy that debate.”
The Cavaliers long ago wearied of this discussion. Given their ho-hum ride through the playoffs, the debate about next year may be the most interesting thing about them.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
The Minnesota Timberwolves, with so many promising performances spoiled by late mistakes fresh in their memory bank, sure timed this strong finish well. Jaden McDaniels scored a career playoff-high 30 points and spearheaded Minnesota’s stifling defense on an ailing Luka Doncic, and the Timberwolves beat the Los Angeles Lakers 116-104 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Friday night. “Jaden never looks tired. He looks like he could play 48 minutes,” said teammate Anthony Edwards, who had 29 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Julius Randle added 22 points for the Wolves, who outscored
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
RSS