NBA Power Rankings: Cleveland Cavaliers ruin Christmas

Cleveland Cavaliers. 1. team. 156. Kyrie Irving is a Jedi knight and no one will convince me otherwise. Kyrie Irving is steadily moving up the list of “guy I want to have the ball on the final play” list. His game winner in Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals is still the biggest shot of his career, but it had to cut deep at the Golden State Warriors to once again lose a game on an Irving jumper. With J.R. Smith sidelined with a broken hand the Cavaliers have turned to DeAndre Liggins and his length and aggressive defense on Steph Curry were huge keys to their Christmas win. Kevin Love is finally looking comfortable with this team. His improved play has allowed him to remain on the floor when the Warriors go small and if he keeps that up we’ll be in for a hell of a NBA Finals once again. LeBron James random rest is approaching soon and if I were a betting man I would think that he might venture elsewhere besides Ohio or Florida for his break. James has always been forthcoming in his praise of Kobe Bryant and with the Black Mamba likely still waking up 5 AM to workout I think we see James head off to California for some one-on-one time with Bryant as part of his break this year. Though the win in the Finals rematch is a huge boost for this team they need to be careful to avoid complacency as the Toronto Raptors only sit one game behind them in the Eastern Conference standings.. 23-7. Previous: