Cavs A Work in “Long Process”

The Cleveland Cavilers now have a 1-2 record after falling to the Portland Trail Blazers, 101-82. Their sole win is a big one, a win in overtime against the team that will likely stand in the way of their Championship hopes, but if the Cavs performance against the Blazers is any indication, associating the squad with a Championship may be very premature.

In fact, making any sort of prediction at three games into the season is premature. Regardless all eyes are on the Cavs as the expectations for a team featuring LeBron James, Kevin Love, Kyrie Irving and new head coach David Blatt are impossibly high. Those expectations are all our own, though, as James and company have never made any sort of promises. In fact, James and Blatt have been honest with themselves and fans in the media.

We have to understand what it takes to win. It’s going to be a long process, man. There’s been a lot of losing basketball around here for a few years. So, a lot of guys that are going to help us win ultimately haven’t played a lot of meaningful basketball games in our league.

When we get to that point when every possession matters , no possessions off — we got to share the ball, we got to move the ball, we got to be a team and be unselfish — we’ll be a better team.

-LeBron James Via NBA.Com

Regardless, the books still have faith in the Cavs. They still sit atop the future odds to win an NBA Championship at 11/4 and will come into tonight’s game against the Utah Jazz as 5-point favorites.

How long the “long process” James’ is referring to will be remains to be seen. Ideally for Cavs’ bettors and fans, by late December this team will be firing on all cylinder and consistently look like the team that took the Chicago Bulls to the limit and won as underdogs instead of the team that only could muster up 82 points of offense.

In that game, Love did his job putting up five threes and 22 points overall. However, Irving, James and Dion Water were less impressive. As a team they scored just 36.5 percent of the time from the field. James was among the teams worst offenders scoring only 11 points and was held scoreless in the second half.  James’ scoring total was his lowest in five years.

Clearly, the Cavs still need some time to learn to mesh together as a team and also be able to rely on one another one of their superstars is having an off night.

Ultimately, the Cavs will be a top tier NBA team. If that happens sooner or late time will tell.