Following last night's heart-stopper in Miami, the Cleveland Cavaliers have now found themselves in the midst of a nice streak of stopping the league's best players.
- A week ago, they took down the NBA's 8th-best scorer, Chris Bosh. The Cavs won 108-100 against Bosh's Toronto Raptors.
- Two nights later, they took down the Los Angeles Lakers and the NBA's 4th-best scorer Kobe Bryant. Bryant was held to 12-31 shooting in a 93-87 Cavaliers victory.
- On Saturday, it was Kevin Durant, the league's #3 scorer. The Cavaliers knocked off Oklahoma City 100-99 thanks to LeBron James, who blocked Durant's shot with 3 seconds left in the game.
- Last night, Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat fell victim to the wine and gold. Wade is the NBA's 5th best player in point production, and had his final two possessions ruined by LeBron James and Cleveland won 92-91
Knocking off the teams of the league's 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 8th best players is no small task, especially when it's done in four consecutive games. The opposition will have less big-name talent in the coming weeks, but as we all know, that doesn't necessarily mean easy victory.
Here's a look at the Cavs' upcoming schedule
Opponent | Record | Last 10 games |
Minnesota | 9-36 | 2-8 |
@ Indiana | 16-29 | 5-5 |
L.A. Clippers | 20-24 | 4-6 |
Memphis | 24-19 | 7-3 |
Miami | 23-21 | 5-5 |
NY Knicks | 17-26 | 4-6 |
New Jersey | 3-40 | 0-10 |
Of the next 7 opponents, 6 will be played in Quicken Loans Arena, where the Cavaliers are 17-3 this year and have racked up a 65-6 record dating back to the Boston series in 2008.
Only two of the next 7 opponents are currently in playoff position, and both are barely over .500.
The 7 teams are a combined 83 games below .500, and not a single one of them has a winning record in the building they will face us in (Indiana is under .500 at home, and the other six are not good road teams).
Does this equal 7 wins? No, it does not....of course not. Every team wants to be the ones to beat the best, so we're going to see some serious competition. But during a time when we have to readjust to injuries and lineup shifts, it's a relief to know that we survived the four-headed beast known as Kobe/Wade/Durant/Bosh. Now we can face some of the league's weaker opposition while we nurse ourselves back to health.
Incidentally, after those 7 games, we have Orlando at The Q, then take a week off for All-Star Weekend. Denver comes to town on February 18th to start the second half, which incidentally will be four weeks since Mo Williams went down with a 4-6 week injury.
Barring no further setbacks and a good adjustment schedule, we could ride this baby out and actually pull away from our conference.
Cross your fingers and hold onto your seats. here we go!