Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Miami Heat: 5 reasons LeBron James will get revenge tonight
By Daniel Tran
1. The Cavs have been dropping point bombs on offense.
On a team that features LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love, there should be no way the Cavs would be struggling offensively, right? Unfortunately, there were stretches where Cleveland was without the services of either James or Irving, or the team plain abandoned the coaches system and their offense suffered mightily for it.
In the stretch of seven games after Christmas and before they acquired J.R. Smith, Iman Shumpert, and Timofey Mosgov, the Cavs were averaging 90.3 points per game while shooting 39.2 percent from the field. In all seven of those games, either Irving or James were out with injuries that robbed the team of time to form a unit and play together.
However, once the Cavs got everyone back and got the newcomers up to speed, the offense adjusted to the personnel and started purring like a newly tuned engine. After spending four games adjusting to one another, Cleveland began to destroy teams on offense, averaging 108.3 points per game and shooting an effective field goal percentage of 53.9 percent since January 15.
LeBron James has also been magnificent during this current streak of success. In his last 14 games, James has averaged 27.2 points on 49.2 percent shooting from the field, 7.0 assists, and 1.9 steals per game. However, it is the team that has been doing the heavy lifting together.
In this current stretch beginning January 15, the Cavs are also leading the league in total points with 1516 points and second in the league in field goal percentage, shooting 47.2 percent from the field. Though they are starting to gel offensively, it is not the only phase of the game where they will impose their will on the Miami Heat.
Next: Defense is back on the menu, boys