Despite LeBron’s heroics on Wednesday night, the Cavaliers struggled to defend and are riven by locker room divisions. The immediate future doesn’t look bright
The NBA calendar is pretty similar from year to year. The regular season officially tips off in October, then there is great debate throughout the land about whether LeBron James’ team is not what it was a season ago highlighted by James making a cryptic social media post alluding to his team’s struggles. Next on the schedule are the Christmas Day games, which are soon followed by a period of deep contemplation on LeBron’s team, if it just might be falling apart (but for real this time) and where LeBron might play next. That period is promptly followed by the NBA All-Star Game and then the league calendar wraps up with the part of the year in which LeBron’s team reasserts its dominance and wins the Eastern Conference with ease. Save for a few extra LeBron-related debates and a Knicks tragedy or two scattered about, that NBA calendar hasn’t changed for a generation.
And so we currently find ourselves in the portion of the calendar in which we are contemplating whether LeBron’s team is falling apart (but for real this time). Let’s do it without the parentheses, though, and instead set it off with some hyphens because LeBron’s team might really be falling apart – but for real this time. Since mid-December, the Cavs have gone 8-14, surrendering more than 110 points in 13 of those 22 games. Cleveland stand at 31-22 on the season, just the seventh-best record in the league and the worst record a LeBron-led team has had since the 2007-08 Cavaliers opened 29-24 through their first 53 games and then lost in the of the playoffs to the Boston Celtics. But that Cleveland team gave heavy minutes to the likes of Delonte West, Drew Gooden, Sasha Pavlovic and Daniel “Boobie” Gibson. It wasn’t built and expected to play like a “superteam.” In fact, that term didn’t even exist in the ancient NBA past of 2008.
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This is too funny. Watch Isaiah Thomas try to celebrate with LeBron. pic.twitter.com/MqLu5xm6VI
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