Bad Break For LeBron The Great - Chris "Preach" Smith

That collective groan you heard from the Midwest and other places 
around the nation around 5 PM Eastern Standard Time? That may
have been the death knell for Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers’
season. 

The season-ending fractured kneecap injury of point guard Kyrie Irving
in Thursday night’s Game 1 of the NBA Finals agains the Golden State Warriors
is yet another bad break for this team, and one they won’t overcome. This
fact is all the more glaring given that the decision by ABC to air Game 2 
on Sunday and thus drag out what could potentially be a sweep hurts
the NBA. You can’t have your best player go out in rough fashion two Finals
years in a row. To quote the New York Yankees great Yogi Berra, “it’s deja
vu all over again.” This was supposed to be a feel-good situation for King
James. Going back home to the graces of Ohio after his stint on South Beach
with the Miami Heat, taking the team to a guaranteed championship, which
would be the first in some 50-odd years for the city of Cleveland? It was the
stuff that Disney scripts are made of. But the beginnings of this bad break
were in the offing from the regular season, and we all knew it or pretended
not to. 

I had been asked by a few people who I thought would win these Finals. My
answer? Golden State in 7. I felt that way not solely because of the supreme
season that Stephen Curry has had, earning him the MVP award. I felt that way
because Cleveland just seemed to be missing something that had you solidly in
their corner to me. LeBron James, whether you want to admit it or not, had a
squad that was going to be just like the squad he last had in Cleveland. And we
all saw how that worked out. The world’s greatest basketball player at this time
was in effect, doing it all by himself. Again. To the tune of 44 points and six 
assists. A mighty effort that wound up falling short when Cleveland went as
cold as a penguin’s belly in overtime. Add Kyrie’s 23 points before his departure
and a short-lived flurry from J.R. Smith and that was the Cavs’ offense. A good
formula, only if all parts click consistently. Not good eough against a Golden State
squad that’s not only loaded for bear, but for the entire damn forest. Consider
this: at one point, the Warriors had Andrew Bogut, Mareese Speights, David Lee,
Festus Ezeli and Stephen Curry. By all accounts, that’s an insane amount of depth
that a team hasn’t fielded since the ‘86 Boston Celtics. When you compare that
bench to Cleveland’s, which is front loaded and now slim with Anderson Varejao
and Kevin Love both out due to injury with Irving, it’s daunting. More on that in
a few.

This is a case of when too many bad breaks happen. This was supposed to be the
new ‘Big Three’: James, Irving and Love. The talk about that obscured certain things.
For one, a rookie head coach who while he handled the role as best as possible,
made some gaffes at the most inconceivable of times. Take Game 1 - Kendrick Perkins,
Shawn Marion and Mike Miller were DNP’s. So David Blatt basically hampered his team’s
depth with that move, which hurt when he had to put James Jones on the floor.
Granted all three of those guys had their prime 3 or 4 years ago. But bodies are
bodies. It’s a problem that Cleveland tried to gloss over, even with the acquisition
of J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert from the woeful New York Knicks. And both of
those guys have inspired a slew of memes, and J.R. even got in on the act taking
shots at the Knicks. For all of their promise, the Cavs just had questionable depth
and had suspicious tendencies on defense in addition to fighting off injuries for most
of this season. Look no further than the Eastern Conference Second Round tilt against the
Chicago Bulls. They should’ve lost in that round. The fact that they didn’t is part of
the reason why Tom Thibodeux was fired by the Bulls weeks after. Want more reasons?
They had to get Timofey Mozgov from Denver to shore up that front line as Tristan
Thompson started to rev it up. Kevin Love hasn’t been the impactful player many 
expected as the wear & tear in Minnesota caught up with him. And remember LeBron’s
‘vacation’ because he was fed up, even though he won’t publicly admit it?

There is no joy when a great competition gets undercut by injuries out of people’s
control. You wonder if Kyrie, who had been battling tendinitis from the latter part
of the regular season, can recover properly from another serious injury involving his
legs. It wasn’t too long ago that people questioned his ability after he declared for the
NBA, leaving a career at Duke University only 11 games long due to injury. LeBron is
focused, only because he’s been here before. He’s going to give it his all no matter 
what just like he did Thursday night, no matter how it will be perceived. And in the
wake of the Game 1 loss, it’s all too apparent that once again, he has to.