2017 Champ Blog

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The Wine &amp; Gold's Wise Man Looks at Cleveland's Road to the Repeat

On a veteran-laden team filled with consummate professionals, the squad’s true sage remains James Jones – the man they call “Champ.”

Like teammates, LeBron James, Kyle Korver and Dahntay Jones, this is Jones’ 14th season in the league. In exactly half of them – consecutively – he and James have reached the NBA Finals, including the title defense Cleveland currently finds itself embroiled in.

So, as the Wine &amp; Gold travel back to Oakland in a familiar situation as one season ago, Cavs.com continues our annual tradition of tapping into the thoughts of the team’s intellectual leader in Champ’s 2017 Finals Blog …

In my first entry, I said that we have to put zero stock in what we’d done in the past and treat this year’s Finals completely separately. And we have to keep that mentality, even with the series mirroring last year’s right now.

Evidently, we’ve come back from this deficit before. But it’s still a totally different team were facing in Golden State.

We’re pretty much the same this year, but with different experience. We’ve had a year of continuity, so I think that’s another year of trusty, another year of familiarity.

That makes it easier to go into an adverse situation like this and be confident that your teammates will respond and have the capacity to respond.

But I still say that it’s totally different; it’s nothing like last year, just because it’s two totally different teams.

I’m not going to say that Golden State’s not conscious of what happened last year. They’re conscious of it.

Everyone knows. They know: we know we came back from 3-1. And the way we did that last year was playing one game at a time.

But while everyone is thinking ‘3-1’ or ‘winning three straight,’ all we’re thinking is: win one game. Leave it all out there for one game – and let’s see what happens from there.

"As good as we were on Friday night, I still think we can hit another level. Some guys still have another gear they can get to."
James Jones

You saw it in Friday night’s Game 4 win.

I think, really, that game was an emotional game – and not just in terms of how hard guys brought it, how hard they played.

More important was how focused we were. I think in the first half we had three or four turnovers. We made our shots, we moved the ball. But more importantly, it was a focus to do the things were supposed to do offensively – limit our mistakes so that they can’t punish us in the transition game.

The situation we’re in reminds everyone that for some reason, this team seems to love and thrive on adversity. We play our best with our back against the wall.

I mean, if you look at our history, it’s accurate. It’s totally true.

I really can’t tell you why, to a man, that’s the case. But overall, I think it’s just because this group has a ton of pride.

But human nature kicks in at a certain point. We all know that humans have a tendency to relax when things are calm and to press when things are tight. And I think the build and makeup of this team is that guys thrive on that pressure. That pressure unlocks their talent.

And so when we’re under pressure situations, it’s like we’re a totally different team.

As good as we were on Friday night, I still think we can hit another level. Some guys still have another gear they can get to.

Guys that struggled earlier in the series came alive at The Q. It’s a sports cliché, but role players really do perform better at home during the postseason.

"We know we have to win. It’s that simple. That’s the only acceptable outcome for us. And we’re going to do everything in our power to make sure that happens."

One, you obviously have the crowd on your side. You’re in familiar surroundings.

But I really do think, in this league, unless you’re an elite team where every place you go, you’re the enemy, there are very few places where the atmosphere is contentious. You have a lot more experience at home in front of a crowd cheering for you and sending you a positive vibe.

Now, you’re in the playoffs where every visiting arena hates you – whatever role you fill with that team. And for guys who aren’t accustomed to that, something they haven’t dealt with a lot in their careers, it’s a different atmosphere and one you’re used to. And you have to adjust to that.

Road or home, we’re gonna need everything we can get from everyone on the floor, on the bench, from the folks who made the trip and our fans back in Cleveland.

We know we have to win. It’s that simple. That’s the only acceptable outcome for us. And we’re going to do everything in our power to make sure that happens.

And I really do believe that when this team collectively decides and determines that the outcome is the one we want – which is a win … we do it.

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Champ's 2017 NBA Finals Blog

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