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Ohio Lottery Winning Time: Unleashed From the East

It sounds like an oversimplification, but winning the championship in almost any (American) sport is about three words: “Who’s. Hot. When.”

Yes, a championship team has to be extremely talented and well-coached. They have to play well at home and have chemistry and all the other sports clichés to win a title.

But mostly it’s about peaking at exactly the right time.

LeBron James is making his sixth straight trip to the NBA Finals, a stretch unmatched since the days of Bill Russell’s Celtics. And he knew exactly what time to shift the season into overdrive – winning Eastern Conference Player of the Month honors in each of the season’s final three months.

Kevin Love started heating up after a simple game off against Denver in late March – returning to notch seven double-doubles over the last 11 games of the regular season, then adding eight straight to start the Playoffs.

Kyrie Irving came on the latest – exploding for 35 points in the regular season’s penultimate game against Atlanta – as the Cavaliers wrapped up the top seed in the East. And he hasn’t slowed down since, notching his fourth 30-point game of the postseason on Friday night in Toronto.

Going 12-2 through the Eastern Conference bracket, the Cavaliers were a machine over the last two wins over Toronto – devouring them again at The Q in Game 5 and leaving nothing to chance in the series-clincher on Friday. The Big Three combined for 71 points in the former, 83 more in Game 6. (Kyrie finished one assist from all three posting a double-double; his nine helpers were one less than Toronto as a team.)

At this point last year, Kyrie was hobbled by a battery of nagging injuries – with the one that’d end his season still to come in Game 1 of the Finals. Love had already undergone surgery to repair the shoulder he injured in Game 4 of the First Round. LeBron was posting superhuman numbers, but his supporting cast was limited.

“We wouldn't be at this point today going to the Finals without (Love and Irving),” said LeBron, deferential as always. “Throughout the first three rounds, they've been the reason why we've played at such a high level. They've accepted the challenge.

“They wanted to get back to this moment. Ky being out seven months, this guy [Love] doing rehab for three-and-a-half months on his shoulder, they just had so much built up -- anxiety or rage or excitement or whatever the case may be throughout the whole process, just to be back on the floor and to show why we were all put together.”

This year, with a huge upgrade at the backup 3 in Richard Jefferson and the added firepower off the bench in Channing Frye – (another midseason home run by GM David Griffin) – the Cavaliers head into the Finals on an absolute roll.

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In fact, the story of Jefferson and Frye – friends since high school – has become one of the most interesting subplots of the 2016 Playoffs.

When the Cavaliers made their difficult midseason head coaching change, Griffin spoke of the team not finding any “joy” in their success. Jefferson and Frye, aside from being consummate professionals, are also the team’s most lighthearted and humorous guys who understand and appreciate the situation they’re in. And as RJ proved to Jonas Valnciunas on Friday night, he can also be not-so-lighthearted.

”You’re gonna need everything hitting on all cylinders to win a Championship; and everybody has to be locked in,” said Jefferson is the soggy Cavaliers locker room. “It’s the seventh guy, the eighth guy, the ninth guy and when you can find a groove with a second unit that plays well, gives you good minutes and even wins games for you, that’s a luxury that not a lot of teams have.”

In the postseason, Jefferson has shot 53 percent from the floor and 46 percent from long-range. Frye has been absolutely deadly from beyond the arc. After hitting just one three pointer (in two attempts) in the four-game sweep of Detroit, the 10-year vet has gone 25-for-43 (58 percent) from deep over the next two rounds.

Heading into the Finals this year, Matthew Dellavedova, Tristan Thompson and Iman Shumpert won’t have to concern themselves with picking up the scoring slack and can remain locked in on the defensive end.

In last year’s Finals (and in much of the run-up), LeBron needed to post Herculean numbers to keep the Cavaliers in it – incredibly leading both teams in scoring, rebounding and assists. This year, it took him 14 postseason contests to notch his first 30-point game. And it’s exactly where he wants to be.

And pushing all the buttons masterfully is Coach Tyronn Lue, who’s steady demeanor has kept Cleveland even-keeled through the wins and the losses.

Lue’s rotations have been completely consistent, his X’s and O’s work (especially through the first two rounds) has been sublime and his game-management – calling timeouts to stem the tide or get a good late-quarter possession – is exactly what you’d expect from a guy who matriculated under Phil Jackson and Doc Rivers.

“Every night the Big Three, two of the three are going to play great,” said Lue following the Conference clincher. “Then we need someone else to step up, and guys have been stepping up throughout the course of the season. Channing Frye, J.R. Smith, Dellavedova. Guys come in, they step up. It's not just the Big Three, it's a team effort.

”That's when we've really been able to play our best basketball, when the Big Three understood and trusted the rest of the guys that are around them. That's when we really started taking off playing great basketball.”

Distractions aside, the Cavaliers were the best team in the Eastern Conference all season, and that played out on Friday night in Toronto, with the Wine and Gold reaching their second straight Finals, third in franchise history.

The first time they reached the Finals in 2007, they had just shocked the Pistons and were no match for the seasoned Spurs. In 2015, they were limping into their best-of-seven against Golden State. This year, they’re peaking at exactly the right time.

Out West, the Spurs won 67 regular season games and the Warriors won 73, an all-time NBA record. But they both ran into the hottest team, with the hottest player, as the Playoffs have progressed.

We’ll find out soon enough which team is really the hottest. If Golden State can ride the momentum of Thursday’s win the rest of the way, they’ll welcome the Wine and Gold to Oakland on Thursday night. If not, for the first time in franchise history, the NBA Finals tip off right here in The Land.