National Basketball Association

Blatt on season: 'What doesn't kill you makes you stronger'

Published Apr. 16, 2015 7:32 p.m. ET

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By Will Gibson

With Wednesday night’s surprisingly thrilling overtime win against the Washington Wizards in the books, the Cleveland Cavaliers' regular season has reached its terminus. The playoffs start Sunday, with the Boston Celtics coming to town hoping to pull off a major upset or at least put a scare into the second-seeded Cavs.

After beating Washington, head coach David Blatt took the podium for his usual postgame press conference. Since this one came after game No. 82, much of the discussion was retrospective, exploring how far the Cavs have come since the season began way back in October 2014. Many questions revolved around the team’s growth and how ready they are for the playoffs.

Blatt acknowledged that he’s still a young pup by NBA coaching standards, and he was glad that his team dealt with struggles during the season.

At this point, Blatt assumed that those assembled had a strong working knowledge of German philosophy.

Jokes aside, Blatt sees his team right now as better than the one he coached in October or January. He understands that his star-studded roster carries with it lofty expectations and that opponents play harder against the Cavs than they might against a lottery team. The Cavaliers’ troubles, both on and off the court, provided adversity with which the team had to deal. Blatt spoke of that experience as a positive that helped them prepare for the postseason crucible.

Blatt seemed pleased to have won 50-plus games and the Central Division, but he thinks that the team could have done even better if LeBron James were healthy and active all year long.

Whether or not that’s true we’ll never know for sure. Perhaps Blatt is just raising the bar for next year. A strong playoff performance will raise it even higher.

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