Dribbles: Using guts, grit and LeBron, Cavs posterize the doubts
Random dribbles following the Cavaliers' thriller of a 95-93 overtime win over the host Warriors in Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Sunday:
1. Think about this for a second: The Cavs are a half-inch away from leading this thing by a 2-0 count heading home. I'm not trying to make Cavs fans feel depressed (just the opposite), or downplay the Warriors' fine in-game runs. The bottom line is this thing is tied at 1-all. But most everyone had written off the Cavs. Well, forget all that noise. This is a series.
2. The Cavs felt the Warriors were a little too celebratory after Game 1. They didn't like how the Warriors acted as if their defensive strategy was to "let" LeBron James score 44 points -- as he did in Game 1. James seemed particularly miffed. So perhaps the Warriors made the mistake of talking too much, too soon. LeBron not only scored 39 points in Game 2, but he grabbed a whopping 16 rebounds and passed for 11 assists.
3. Those are out-of-this-world, heart-of-champion numbers. League MVP or not, LeBron is still the most unstoppable, most complete player in the game. And it's not even close.
4. I'm still amazed, by the way. No Kevin Love. No Kyrie Irving. And if you really want to go back far enough, no Anderson Varejao, either. The Warriors entered Sunday with a 47-3 record at home this season. So a lot of folks painted this as a no-brainer. The Cavs have no chance, they said.
5. But the Cavs are defending. They are crashing the boards. They are fighting. They are clawing. They are scrapping, scrapping, scrapping, and scrapping some more.
6. Just look at Matthew Dellavadova filling in for Irving and annoying the living tar our of Warriors star Steph Curry (5-of-23 shooting, 2-of-15 on 3-pointers). Delly also hit the game's two biggest free throws in OT to provide the final margin. Or just look at Cavs center Timofey Mozgov, getting to the basket, drawing fouls and hitting important free throws himself. Mozgov finished with 17 points and 11 boards. And just look at power forward Tristan Thompson, who can't get a decent look at the basket and can't score -- but has wrestled his way to a Finals average of 14.5 boards a game.
7. Read: Win, lose or draw, this is truly a team of which Cleveland can be proud.
8. How determined have the Cavs been defensively? Well, they won despite hitting a measly 32 percent of their shots. They went just 70 percent from the line. And Thompson, Dellavedova and Iman Shumpert combined for a 5-of-26 night. That included a late-game airball from Shumpert. And the Cavs won on the road anyway.
9. LeBron on the Cavs' recent play: "It's not cute at all. If you're looking for us to play sexy, cute basketball, that's not us. That's not us right now. Everything is tough."
10. More LeBron: "For us to win a Finals game shooting 32 percent from the field, it's just a testament of how gritty we can be."
11. By the way, I wonder what the national media and Twitter-verse would be saying if LeBron had a night like Steph Curry? I have nothing against Curry. I actually love watching him play. I especially appreciate how he has worked his tail off to become an awesome NBA player without possessing anything resembling an NBA frame. But good grief, could the big-time news outlets possibly worship him more?
12. Cavs coach David Blatt deserves a huge share of the credit for his tight substitution patterns and for finding the right matchups to fit next to James. How this team kept it close in Game 1, then won Game 2, is beyond me -- especially with Shumpert and J.R. Smith playing below their typical playoff standards. This team is extremely tight and mentally tough, and Blatt is a big reason why.
13. Blatt had a lot to say after the game, and a lot of it focused on Dellavedova and the Cavs' D. But he also said something about the overwhelming narrative these days, as nearly everyone has predicted doom for his team following the injuries to Irving and Love.
14. Blatt on those very matters: "That writing us off and the underdog title and (saying we have) little chance, that's a good thing. This team has nothing on its mind but trying to win a championship. And the fact Kyrie went down, the fact Kevin went down, has not changed our resolve in any way, and has not caused us to look for some particular break or sympathy -- because it's not coming. It hasn't come to us all year. We've dealt with adversity from day one this year. These situations only make us stronger. And I thought the guys played a very heartful game tonight."
15. LeBron on Dellavedova: "Obviously he's a guy that's been counted out his whole life. People have probably been telling him he's too small, he's not fast enough, he can't shoot it well enough, he can't handle it good enough, and he's beat the odds so many times. The confidence that we have in him allows him to be confident in himself. He goes out and he just plays his tail off, and when a guy like that does that, he gets great results."
16. Delly also crashed the boards to set up his big free throws, corralling a missed LeBron jumper and drawing a foul. Then the second-year Australian knocked them down. Not bad for a guy from little St. Mary's (Calif.) College who never got drafted.
17. Delly on the free throws: "That is a classic thing you practice as a kid growing up: Down one, you need to make both free throws. So I felt like I've been in that situation a million times."
18. FYI: Dellavedova played 42 minutes, improving the Cavs' record to 5-0 in playoff games in which he plays at least 30.
19. Also FYI: The Cavs are no longer the only team to reach the Finals and not get a win. They were swept by the Spurs in 2007, so make it 1-5 overall.
20. James Jones was fantastic off the bench in the first half, when he scored all eight of his points. If he makes shots with any sort of regularity in this series, I predict the Warriors are in serious trouble.
