This is LeBron's best chance to win Cleveland a title
LeBron James was hellbent: Under no circumstances would the Cleveland Cavaliers play a Game 7 in the Eastern Conference finals.
Even if LeBron had to do it all himself, he would make sure that the Cavaliers ended that series Friday night in Toronto.
So LeBron went out and set the tone early — scoring 21 first-half points with only 37 seconds of rest.
He was ready to carry the Cavs the rest of the way, too — he's done it in the past — but that wasn't necessary, because this time he had help.
Kyrie Irving posted an efficient 30 points, Kevin Love scored a no-frills 20, and the Cavs overpowered the Raptors, holding Toronto to 41.8 percent shooting in a 113-87 series-clinching victory that put the Cavs in their second straight and LeBron in his sixth straight NBA Finals.
There was a celebration for the victory, sure, but for the Cavs and LeBron, everything up to this point — all the ups and downs — meant nothing. More so than any other team in the NBA, the only thing that matters at the end of the Cavs' season is if they won a title. Right or wrong, getting to the Finals was presumed.
Still, the Finals overshadowed everything the Cavs did this season. Whether it was a regular season game or a fierce playoff showdown, every moment dripped with context — "What did we learn about the Cavs' title chances tonight?" — as if every contest carried the same weight as Friday night's game. Everything the Cavs did was tied to this exact moment — the precipice of definition.
That's why LeBron was on a mission Friday: A Game 7 would rob the Cavs of time to rest and plan for the Finals, and that sort of disservice wasn't acceptable. So he refused to rest and pushed his teammates to leave nothing in the tank. It was a hard ask, but his teammates responded.
That should tell you exactly how different things are in Cleveland this year.
Not only is LeBron is playing his best basketball while wearing a Cavs jersey, he has by far the best supporting cast in his time in Northeast Ohio.
Put those two things together, and you have this truth:
It's easy to forget, but despite the Cavs entering the playoffs as overwhelming favorites to advance out of the Eastern Conference, this team carried plenty of problems into the postseason.
Kevin Love's role was undefined, the team's defense was inconsistent at best, and Kyrie Irving and LeBron had shown few signs of chemistry inside the Cavs' stagnant and uninspired half-court offense.
Oh, and the man who was tasked with creating the gameplan to make this highly talented, but obviously disorganized team work together, Tyronn Lue, had never held a head coaching job before being promoted mid-season.
But save for a two-game lull in the middle of the Eastern Conference finals, the Cavs consistently improved throughout the first three rounds of the playoffs. They answered the questions. They're peaking at exactly the right time.
Love found his aggression on the offensive end and took to the role of smallball center with ease. The Cavs' defense improved drastically (J.R. Smith, specifically, was tremendous in the closeout games of the ECF). And James and Irving have found understanding and joy in the Cavs' evolved offense, which is predicated on pace, movement of both the man and ball, and plenty of the two-man game that the duo had eschewed until the second round started.
There's a chance that all this newfound progress goes away once the Finals start — success is fleeting, after all. But some of that concern has been alleviated, as the Cavs were able to post two first-class performances after falling back into old habits in Games 3 and 4 of the Eastern Conference finals.
Cleveland hasn't won a title in any of the city's three major professional sports since the Browns won the NFL title in 1964. That was the pre-Super Bowl era. LeBron's mother wasn't even alive the last time a Cleveland team won a championship.
LeBron returned to Cleveland to deliver that title — the prodigal son coming home, but also throwing the party.
That party hasn't happened yet, but the Cavs have all the proper supplies to make it happen. And LeBron James — the most dominant basketball player in the world — is hellbent to make this the year it's thrown.
