Hoops Habit
Fansided

LeBron James And The City Of Cleveland’s Complicated Relationship

By Ben Gibson

Mar 10, 2016; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) during the game against the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 10, 2016; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) during the game against the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
4 of 5
Next
San Antonio Spurs
Jan 30, 2016; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) blocks a shot attempt by San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili (20) in the third quarter at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports /

The San Antonio Spurs

The Spurs just won’t go away. We keep wondering when they’ll finally have a drop-off, but they’re having one of the best seasons in NBA history, which has gotten lost in Golden State’s success. They’ve made some more obvious changes from this year to last, with LaMarcus Aldridge being the most noticeable.

Kawhi Leonard’s 21.1 points a game leads San Antonio while Aldridge’s 18 points a game follow closely behind. Those two may be doing the heavy lifting points wise, but the old guard of Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker still play a big role in their success.

San Antonio has the third best offense and the best defense in the NBA as the regular season winds to a close. A testament to their greatness this season is that according to NBA.com, they’ve only played 86 mins of “clutch time” this season. NBA.com defines that as the last five minutes of a game with a scoring margin of five points or less.

Basically, that means they’ve rarely been in late game situations where the outcome was in doubt. That’s something that happens when you have the NBA’s best net rating of +12.5 in those close game situations.

2014-15 v. 2015-16 San Antonio Spurs | PointAfter

More important than any particular stat for San Antonio is the fact all of them can match up well against the Cavaliers. Cleveland won one of their two meetings this year, but we all know playoff Spurs are a different animal than the regular season Spurs. You can shake up and cross match all you want with the rotations, but you have the best team of the last decade with multiple Hall of Famers going up against talented, but not as tested players in the form of the Cavaliers.

We’ve seen how LeBron can put the entire Cleveland team on his back, but the beauty of the Spurs is the fact they don’t need any one player to be dominant. It isn’t so much a death by 1,000 cuts as it is them brutally murdering you with machetes. It may be Duncan one night, Leonard the other, or anyone else, but that’s hard to deal with in a seven-game series, something LeBron knows all too well.

It hasn’t helped that some of the issues for Cavaliers are of their own doing. They’ve gotten things back on track now, but between their own awkwardness at times and the juggernaut that will emerge out of the Western Conference, Cleveland’s path to a championship is treacherous.

Next: The Mounting Pressure

Home/Cleveland Cavaliers