Playoff Live Thread: Cavs vs. Pacers (Game 7, The Skip Feed)

The previous three potential Cavalier playoff exits were all about the present: In 2015 through 2017, the wine and gold were playing for a championship in that moment. This afternoon, though? The Cavs aren’t playing for a championship. They’re playing for their future: the next series, the playoffs, the future of this franchise for possibly the next five years. It’s a lot to expect for a young squad not to look into the future and focus on the moment at hand. Playing with LeBron James provides for constant distractions. Heck, our fans can’t even stay enthused. Thankfully, I think Game 6 was an intercepted skip feed: it led to a runout, but the series is still theirs. 

As for the Cavs roster, there was still some mystery as of last night. George Hill is questionable with Ty Lue simply saying Hill “moved around pretty good so we will see.” Ty was also cagey with the lineup, hinting that they may need more size to contend with Indy inside. I’d love to see Larry in the starting (and especially closing) lineup, but I doubt it happens. Still, I’m picking the Cavs this game, for no other reason than that they tend to bounce back in games like this, and the extended rest at the end of Game 6 will be good for all involved. They’ve just got to stay loose and play without fear, especially Kevin Love. I hope J.R. hooked Kev up with some of the good-good last night to loosen him up (joking). James himself looks loose, after “coaching” his son to another victory yesterday. I hope to see more of these on the St. V’s sidelines in coming years.

To give you a more extended preview and series recap, I’ll turn you over to long time CtBer, Right Down Euclid (the first), who penned this piece on our relationship and Indy’s relationship with LeBron James. 

First time contributor/long time commenter/one time hitchhiker Right Down Euclid here. I’ve found myself with a bit more time on my hands lately and as I started typing out a lengthy response to EG’s Game 5 recap a few nights ago, I realized I had the beginnings of a full-fledged CTB post on my hands and now here I am. See kids: anything is possible!

Just a couple of games ago I finally learned from Nate what a skip feed is after hearing Fred McLeod mention it so many times and I decided it would be a great name for this potential periodical. A skip feed, whereby a player passes from one side of the floor to the other while bypassing an intermediate player, is a great analogy for the glory and pain of playing with LeBron. And in one of our many shared similarities, it’s also a great analogy for how my mind works and the glory and pain of working with me.

As we’ve long agonized (particularly lately) at CTB, LeBron consistently eschews system and scheme in favor of his Bobby Fischer-like ability to see plays unfold 2-3 moves ahead and instead hold the ball until making one home run pass with seconds left on the shot clock. On the upside, more often than not he makes the right play and it becomes nearly impossible to plan against. On the downside, it turns everyone around him into a bit player in the travelling LeBron circus. LeBron is the platform and JR Smith is just the Uber driver you gave three stars for not wearing a shirt. And when jumpshots stop falling at a high clip, and LeBron can’t go supernova that night because he’s logged more playoff minutes than anyone else and is bleeding from the face, sometimes you lose by 34 in a closeout game.

I can relate because in my day job I similarly can often see things unfolding 2-3 steps out and go for the mental “skip pass.” But more often than not I fail to bring my colleagues along with my ideas and end up yelling at Kevin Love for making the wrong cut while the other guys go sprinting down the floor in the other direction. It’s at this point my manager will tell me to turn off the Cavs game, stop yelling at Kevin Love, and get back to work. That and calling this column “The Skip Feed” means I’m right on brand when I post inconsistently about random topics that pop into my head.

Back to matters at hand, Evil Genius brought up the analogy of LeBron to the Pacers as Michael Jordan is to the Cavs. It’s unreal that Pacers fans may very likely end up viewing LeBron exactly how Cavs fans think about Jordan. Michael eliminated the Cavs four times between 1988 and 1993. (Incidentally it happened again in 1994 sans MJ with the Bulls en route to the Eastern Conference Semis, which if memory serves me correctly is a similar result to how the Cavs performed the year after LeBron left). No matter how good those early 90’s Cavs teams were, greatness personified was always standing in their way.

If the Cavs can win Sunday, it will be the fifth time in seven years that LeBron has eliminated the Pacers. 10 years from now Pacers fans will be saying “man we had some great teams with Paul George and Roy Hibbert and Lantz’s brother but we just always had the best standing in our way.”  Eventually, I imagine the pain will fade and they will appreciate their front row seat to LeBron’s greatest moments. For me, I always think of MJ a little bit more fondly because he’s inextricably linked to the Cavs more than most non-Chicago teams. It’s impossible to properly tell the history of Jordan without telling the story of “those early 90’s Cavs teams that were actually really good” and it’s impossible to show “The Shot” “Michael Jordan’s Shot” without highlighting a lesser known Cleveland team just on the cusp of greatness.

Basking in the glory of “The Shot” after Game 5 sent me down a YouTube rat hole, which eventually took me to a “best crowd reaction” video and to Kobe’s final 60 point game. I have to admit it did strike me while watching the crowd go insane for Kobe that Cleveland may not ever have the same relationship with LeBron that LA did with Kobe. Kobe played 20 seasons in LA and more importantly they watched him win five rings. Now I’m not trying to re-litigate the decision or blame LeBron as our one championship will always mean more to Cleveland than Kobe’s five in LA. But that said it’s striking to think, as great as LeBron is, we have so much less shared history with him than LA does with Kobe or Chicago does with Michael. LeBron will forever be ours but it’s easy to forget his resume was largely written while wintering in South Beach.

At the same time the fact that we share as many tears of sadness and frustration with LeBron as we do tears of joy makes our connection to him that much more visceral, more familial, and more well…Cleveland. It’s been written many times before that part of the reason LeBron leaving Cleveland hurt so much is because many of us saw in his actions a reflection of our own and they do say people who live in glasses houses shouldn’t throw lead pipes.

So while our relationship with LeBron will always be infinitely more complex, less joyful, and less fan-boyish than LA’s with Kobe or Chicago’s with Michael, it will always be more authentic and relatable. Our relationship is with James, the man, more than it is with James, the icon. The movie version will have real highs, lows, suspense and tension, which is something LA fans never really had to experience other than one scene in Colorado.

In season 15, Kobe’s Lakers were swept in the second round by the eventual NBA champion Dallas Mavericks. The Lakers were coming off back to back championships — the same position LeBron’s Cavs could very well be in were it not for Kevin Durant joining a 73-win team. Kobe was content with 5 rings in hand to live out his last 7 seasons in Lakerland receiving only a suddenly divalike Dwight Howard and a version of Steve Nash that spent much of his time horizontal next to the bench.

Kobe had three with Shaq and all five with Phil and didn’t make it out of the first round seven times. Michael didn’t make it out of the first round until he had Scottie and he didn’t achieve anything without Phil. Incidentally, you couldn’t be blamed for wondering whether it was actually Phil who was the platform and Michael and Kobe his repertory players.

In a draft of this piece I wrote before Game 6 I ended on note of hope that LeBron’s Game 5 heroics would serve to inspire Kevin Love and Rodney Hood to rise above whatever it is that’s been plaguing them. But sitting here late Friday night it’s hard to deny that Sunday is all about LeBron.

For the first time since the 66-win 2009 Cavs he’s probably questioning what he’s even playing for. Is it because he doesn’t lose in the first round? Is it because he knows what “The Shot” and owning the Pacers like how Michael owned the Cavs will do for his legacy if he can get one more win? Or is he just that driven that he will fight and claw his way through this 15th season until he’s given his all?

After Sunday he’ll have to ask himself day after day until July: what is he playing for? For two more rings? For 38,388 points? To go down as one of the greats who, with few exceptions, played all of their meaningful minutes in the same colored jersey? Certainly it’s not lost on LeBron the difference between Kobe’s farewell tour of adulation and the twilight years of rent-a-Shaq, which went out with a whimper in the form of a tweet from his home office.

It’s tempting to say LeBron has done more with less than any other player before him but that’s more a statement on the quality of his coaches than his teammates. Wade and Kyrie were LeBron’s Scottie for the last seven seasons and he just so happened to make the finals in all seven of them – losing most recently only when his sidekick got injured or when Kevin Durant joined a 73-win team.

That’s where the comparisons to history end as LeBron embarks upon an unprecedented fourth act to his career. With health on his side he seemingly has a lot left to prove. But he must prove it in a league full of super teams, Processes, competent NBA coaches, Kevin Durant on a 73-win team, and a budding Pacer superstar and his revved up Pacers.