The Finals: Game 6 Preview/Live Thread

Protect this house!

Regardless of outcome, tonight will be the last game of the NBA season played at Quicken Loans Arena. The Cleveland Cavaliers will attempt one last valiant home stand in front of more than 20,000 of their loudest fans, in the hopes of securing one more trip out west to settle things for good.

A season that began one memorable night in late October at the Q with Game 1 of the regular season, now reaches an amazing climax 50 home games later with a penultimate Game 6. Despite season-ending injuries to three of the starters from that October opening night, this team has made a playoff push for the ages. They have rejected excuses, embraced the grind, committed themselves to being All-In, and are within two victories of pulling off possibly the most improbable championship run of all time.

The onus has fallen squarely on the shoulders of LeBron James, and he has stalwartly accepted the challenge to lead this band of bench players, castoffs and overachievers into battle for five hard fought contests. And now, in perhaps the toughest task to date, he must draw the proverbial line in the sand and use every ounce of will to refuse to allow the Warriors to celebrate a championship of their own on the hardwood in the heart of Cleveland.

As transcendent as LeBron has been thus far (at some point we will have to break down the historical import of his unbelievable Finals performance, since the records he’s setting could comprise their own dedicated chapter in Guinness), remarkably he will have to find a way to do just a little bit more for the Cavs to push this series to a seventh and final game. Either that, or his worn-down, beat-up and written-off teammates will have to rise to the challenge of defending their home turf for 48 more minutes.

Even though there’s been talk of LBJ being deserving of being named the Finals MVP, regardless of whether his team wins, by his own admission, it would mean nothing next to a championship for his team and his city.

“I wouldn’t feel good about it at all,” James said after Cavs shootaround in advance of Game 6 on Tuesday night. “Because at the end of the day, I’m here to win a team prize, and that’s to win a championship, not an individual prize.”

However, the King is confident that he and his team can finish the job they set out to accomplish all those many months ago, no matter who is on the court with him. So, tonight, a Russian, an Australian, a Canadian, a New Yorker, a Chicagoan, a Floridian (and possibly even a South Dakotan and a Waukeegan) will join the prodigal and native son of The Land as a representative team of Clevelanders in their last opportunity to defend it this season.

They will need to hear 20,000 voices screaming in unison for them, driving and inspiring them to leave everything they have on the floor. They will need the collective will of the City they’ve “put on for” over the course of the last eight months behind them. They will need all of the grit and toughness of this title-starved region to draw strength from.

One last chance to extend this series. One last chance to witness a wine & gold victory at home in Cleveland. And one last chance (to have one more chance) to cheer, and scream, and put your heart all in for this incredible Cavaliers team…

LET’S GO CAVS!