Since LeBron James returned to Cleveland before the 2014-15 season, the Cavaliers haven’t spent much more time being the “hunted” than the “hunters.”
Those roles have reversed in mid-June the past two years, but among Eastern Conference foes, the Wine and Gold are definitely the squad with a target on their back.
Naturally, opponents get up for the World Champs – and always have for LeBron James-led teams, anyway. And this past week, after Cleveland got off to a 13-2 start to their season – best in franchise history – the Cavaliers saw teams coming after them with a new level of aggression.
The Sixers, as they always seem to, gave the Cavaliers difficulty in the first half of an afternoon affair in Philly. That seemed to snowball into a Tuesday night drubbing in Milwaukee, an extremely rare home loss to the Clippers and a tough-to-swallow Friday night defeat against the Bulls – who’ve won the season series over Cleveland in five of the previous six seasons.
So when the slumping Wine and Gold rolled into Toronto on Monday night to face off against a white-hot squad that had won their last four home games by an average of 29.8 points per, it looked like the Cavs’ recent skein might just continue. That feeling was only compounded after a first quarter that saw LeBron James tweak his knee but eventually return to action and J.R. Smith injure his knee and eventually return to Cleveland.
But the World Champs looked like World Champs on Monday – taking it to Toronto in a gym that has given them fits of late.
After the game, the Raptors MVP candidate, DeMar DeRozan acknowledged that the Raptors saw an opportunity in the reeling Cavaliers.
”We did, especially with a team like that losing a couple in a row,” said the Eastern Conference’s leading scorer. “They had to be on high alert, especially knowing that we've been playing well this past week-and-a-half. They came out, took advantage of it and they got the win.”
DeRozan finished with 31 points despite a rock-solid effort by the D-League’s two-time Defensive Player of the Year, DeAndre Liggins – who played 21 productive minutes when J.R. was forced from the game.
”I like the energy (Liggins) brings defensively, I thought we needed that,” praised Coach Lue after the victory. “I thought we needed the toughness that he brings and him just flying around. It may not be the right coverage all the time but just his activity, the way he plays and how he plays hard, it’s just big for us.”
With the win, the Cavaliers improved to 3-0 against last year’s Eastern Conference Finals opponent, with one matchup remaining – an April 12th date at The Q, the season’s final game.
”(The Cavaliers) won a championship last year, so for us – a team that is chasing the best team in the NBA last year – our margin of error is small,” lamented Toronto’s Kyle Lowry. “They beat us three times so far this year and they have our number right now, but we have a long way to go and a lot more regular season games to go and continue to play.”
The Cavaliers got big performances from the Big Three, who combined for 86 points in the win – led by LeBron James’ season-high 34-point outburst. The four-time MVP, who’s scored more points against Toronto than any NBA player since the team’s inception (1,324), went 12-of-26 from the floor and 8-of-9 from the stripe, adding eight boards, seven assists and a pair of steals.
“We just carried on with what we did yesterday in practice,” said James, whose announcement that the team’s “honeymoon” was over after Friday’s loss in Chicago. “We got down to the basics, had a lot of grit from start to finish and it definitely helped us get this win.”
Kyrie Irving improved on his career-best, 10th straight game of 20-plus points, netting 24 on 9-for-18 shooting, adding seven assists – including one of the slickest passes of the season, a precise behind-the-back dish to LeBron between two Toronto defenders on a full-on fastbreak.
Kevin Love doubled-up for the first time since the loss in Milwaukee – netting 13 of his 28 points in the first quarter and tying Tristan Thompson with a game-high 14 boards.
”We didn’t feel like we started off the road trip well, naturally with a loss (in Chicago),” said Love after Monday’s win. “We didn’t play our game and we hadn’t played our game in a couple games prior to that, so we felt like we got back on track tonight. We beat a good team away from home that plays well here. Now we have to just take tomorrow, get better, watch film and then get ready to go against the Knicks.”
Cleveland can’t let up after taking their third straight against Toronto. They’ll be facing a different Knicks team than in years past on Wednesday night – one that’s taken eight of their last 11 heading into a Tuesday night meeting in Miami.
And so goes the hunt in the Eastern Conference …