“To a huge degree, if there’s fault associated with our regular season, it’s mine because we’re signing our 21st and 22nd players right now”, Griffin said. I’ll never put anything off like that, but it’s different though working with kids. “I think he made the right play and you live with the results”.
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“The most gratifying thing for me is we completed the season healthy”, Lue said.
The NBA playoffs are set to get underway on Saturday with the defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers set to host the Indiana Pacers in Game 1 of their first round series.
With six straight visits to the Finals on his resume, James knows his way around the playoffs better than any player in the league, and maybe better than anyone in history. “We had a tough regular season, but if we went 82-0 and lost first round, then you’d be writing about that”.
But there’s genuine concern about these Cavaliers, who staggered down the stretch.
The Cavs vs Pacers game will revolve on the match up between George and James, the two stars each playing against each other.
Tavares gives Lue at least another big man to use if Thompson isn’t 100 percent or gets into foul trouble. However, all five LeBron-led teams that finished second in the East went on to reach the NBA Finals. “We call him the Cavs killer”.
Hill (San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich’s favorite player) is now the starting point guard for the resurgent Utah Jazz, averaging a career-high 16.9 points to go with 4.2 assists and 3.4 rebounds.
Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is at 7 p.m. April 17 at Quicken Loans Arena.
IN took advantage of the backups by pulling out to a 22-15 lead after one quarter and starting the third quarter on a 9-2 run to turn a seven-point into a 59-45 cushion. Lue said nerves were not a problem the night before the opener.
Indiana’s roster has undergone some changes over the last few years, with the likes of Roy Hibbert and Lance Stephenson heading elsewhere.
And that’s Paul George.
James said the Cavs’ plan on the final play was not to let George beat them. This team is much more comfortable with its back against the wall and when everybody says we can’t. “I think we’ll show that (today)”.
But critics are quick to point out that these are not last season’s Cavs, and their four-game season-ending losing streak and stumbling 23-23 finish are all the proof you need of that.
We’ll see how it plays out, but compared to 2016’s 10-game breeze through the Eastern Conference Playoffs, it may not be such a cakewalk for the Cavs, who lost home court advantage in the Eastern Conference, if they do indeed meet up with the Boston Celtics.
However, many analysts have coined this years Celtics team the “worst top seed in the history of the National Basketball Association”. “We don’t fear anybody, but we don’t take anyone for granted and don’t feel we’re better than any body else”.
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This is not the first time James had a hard time in the regular season. It felt like a statement that LeBron James and the Cavs were able, when they really cared, to handle the perceived top competition in the East. Cavs rookie G Kay Felder (left ankle sprain) didn’t play on a night when he otherwise would have been out there.
