The Cleveland Cavaliers’ best player is LeBron James. Their best scorer is LeBron James. Their best rebounder is LeBron James (sorry, Kevin). Their best passer is LeBron James. Their most efficient player is LeBron James. Is it fair to say that LeBron is the best player on the Cavaliers? Without a doubt. Is it fair to say that LeBron is the best player in the world? Absolutely. Is it fair to say that LeBron is the best player to ever play the game? Sure, but I won’t get into that argument today (even though he is). LeBron James has complete dominance over the Toronto Raptors. On Thursday night, LeBron casually scored 43 points, assisted on 14 Cavaliers field goals, grabbed 8 rebounds, and still had time to bite his nails on the bench. I tweeted this last night as LeBron hit an 18-foot fadeaway jumper over Raptors Point Guard Kyle Lowry: The shot was high arching and hit nothing but the net. LeBron continued to scorch the Raptors the rest of the night. He hit seven fadeaway jumpers, progressively increasing in difficulty as they went up. He scored or assisted on 29 of the Cavaliers 37 points in the third quarter points. According to basketball-reference.com, he is the only player ever with at least 40+ points and 14 assists in a playoff game, he has the most games in NBA history with 40 points, 8 rebounds, and 11 assists in a playoff game, and he has accomplished this in four consecutive seasons.
Despite LeBron’s “awful” Game 1 where he scored 26 points, 13 assists, and 11 rebounds, he is averaging 35 points, 14 assists, and 10 rebounds on the series, all on 53% shooting from the floor. Game 1 was LeBron’s “worst of the season,” and he responded by attacking the Raptors in multiple areas: the post, mid-range, the three, and the short corner. He is simply amazing at the game of basketball. It is a pleasure to watch him play, and it is a joy to have him on the team that I love. Speaking of love, Kevin Love was spotted in Toronto on Thursday night. The All-Star Power Forward scored 31 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for the Cavaliers in a performance that fans and members of the media have been waiting for. Some had lost hope that after Love was traded to the Cavaliers in 2014 that he would never be the same player he was in Minnesota. To an extent, this is true. He has never made it back to his career-high averages of 26 points and 13 rebounds a game, but Kevin Love is still an All-Star and an All-NBA caliber player. On Thursday night, the Cavaliers force fed Kevin Love, giving him the ball on almost every possession at the beginning of the game. He answered the call. He did not hesitate to put the ball up as he did in Game 1 and in the series against the Pacers. He was physical and created his own shots, not the ones that he usually gets by standing in the corner and waiting for another player to pass it to him. This is encouraging for a Cavaliers team that has been waiting to see the Kevin Love that they traded for almost four seasons ago. If the Cavaliers continue to play the way they are capable of and finish the series against the Raptors quickly, there isn’t a team in the Eastern Conference that can stop them. The only challenge is who they will face in the Finals -- round four against the Warriors, or the fresh and new Houston Rockets. |
Chase BrownChase is a senior on staff and has been with the Ravine for 3 years. Recently, Chase won 4th place in the NSPA Sports Story of the Year for his reporting about discrepancies between male and female sports. Archives |