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For the Cleveland Cavaliers, it was a long and occasionally frustrating season. They fired their coach after 41 games. Their star player did not always seem to be on the same page with his teammates. At no point did they look like a team that would be unbeatable in the East, at least not for any extended period of time.
And yet, they are pretty much right where they want to be. They have the top seed in their conference, and LeBron James has been playing like an unstoppable force of nature once again over the last few weeks. If he can keep it up, and get some help, the Cavs are just 16 wins away from ending Cleveland's daunting professional sports drought.
It all starts tomorrow afternoon.
Who: Pistons (0-0) at Cavs (0-0)
What: NBA Playoffs Round 1, Game 1
When: Sunday, 3:00 pm Eastern
Where: Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, Ohio
TV: ABC
Enemy blog: Detroit Bad Boys
-How good has LeBron been lately? Here are his numbers for the five games he played in April: 28.8 points, 8.4 boards, and 7.8 assists per game. He shot 66 percent from the field and 56 percent from three. Not. Bad.
-Obviously LeBron was great during last year's postseason, but his efficiency was less than his norm. This time, if he can continue shooting like he did to close out the season, not many teams are going to have any chance to stop him.
-While LeBron has been playing some of his best basketball of late, the Pistons' Andre Drummond shot just 39 percent from the field in six games in April. A big key for the Cavs will be preventing him from dominating the interior.
-The Cavs expect to have Iman Shumpert available tomorrow, but Mo Williams will likely not be ready until Game 2, at the earliest.
-We have lots of other #content here at Fear the Sword to get you ready for this series:
- Fear the Sword's series roundtable, featuring Justin, Daniel, Jack, David, Brett, and Alex Raulli
- Fear the Sword's end-of-season roundtable, featuring Chris, Alex, Alex, Trevor, Scott, Jack, and yours truly
- Trevor's in-depth look at the Pistons
- Also be sure to check out our awards ballot and 2015-16 superlatives
-And we'll have more between now and tomorrow's tip. Enjoy.