LeBron James carries Cleveland to victory: 3 takeaways
LeBron James poured in 33 points as the Cleveland Cavaliers outdueled the Utah Jazz with Kevin Love returns back in the lineup.
The Cleveland Cavaliers took care of business Thursday night inside Quicken Loans Arena and held off a feisty Utah Jazz team as they make the final strides for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. Kevin Love returned to bolster the lineup after being out for over a month, and everything seemed to be on the up-and-up for Cleveland.
Comfortably ahead much of the game, all was well until the second half for Cleveland. In the third quarter, starters Kyrie Irving and Iman Shumpert would get a dose of the injury bug. Shumpert left in the third quarter with a sprained shoulder and is now listed day-to-day and Irving sat out the fourth due to stiffness in his knee.
With no Irving or Shumpert, and a rusty Kevin Love who scored 10 points in 19 minutes of play, LeBron James put the team on his back. Reported by Steve Herrick of the Associated Press per Yahoo, Irving made sure to get LeBron’s approval before sitting for the remainder of the night. ”I went to ‘Bron and was like, ‘You got this?’ and he said,’Yeah,” Irving said.
He indeed had it, LeBron would go on to do more LeBron things and led all scorers for the night. James added 33 points on 65 percent shooting from the field, 10 rebounds, 6 assists and also two steals.
Takeaways
King’s court: Although Russell Westbrook is deservedly the MVP of the league, don’t be surprised if LeBron James makes a significant push in the race to stir up the conversation. LeBron James continues to dominate the league and in a way is still underappreciated. LeBron James passed Tim Duncan to become 13th all-time in field goals made, and while doing so had one of his best fourth quarters of the year — putting up 17 after his star point guard went down. LeBron is starting to hit that playoff stride as he does about this time of the year and teams should be on full alert.
Injured, but deep: The Cavaliers are banged up at the moment, but there is no reason to panic just yet. As the case is in most seasons for NBA players, at the end of the season everyone is nursing some sort of injury. This is no different for Cleveland, except they’re just trying to hold off the Celtics for the No. 1 seed in the playoffs. Cleveland is now plagued by injuries to Kyrie Irving (knee), Kyle Korver (tendonitis-foot), Derrick Wiliams (back contusion) and Iman Shumpert (shoulder). With so many injuries and Love on restrictions, it’d be reasonable to be worried. But with the versatility of James and added depth, Cleveland can rest easy as the playoff race starts to heat up down the stretch.
East Coast bias: The Utah Jazz often are victims of flying under the radar. A team full of talent, but with only one superstar who’s really not a superstar quite yet, they continue to go unnoticed by many fans and NBA media. LeBron James made sure to point that out after handing the Jazz a loss inside Quicken Loans.
LeBron James to @FOXSportsOH on #Jazz: "People don't know about them, they're not on national TV a lot ... but that's a great team." #Cavs
— Sam Amico (@AmicoHoops) March 17, 2017
Indeed they are a great team, Gordon Hayward is ascending into something great and Rudy Gobert, likely to win Defensive Player of the Year, is a force to be reckoned with. Gobert did most of the work in the loss, putting up 20 points,19 rebounds and two blocks on the evening.
As we near April, fans should be tuned into both teams, especially the Jazz as they enter new territory as a team that demands respect sitting in the No. 4 spot in the Western Conference behind the Houston Rockets. As the Jazz gain their identity under Head Coach Quin Snyder, Hayward and Gobert, they will be fun to watch for years to come.
It goes without mentioning that the Cavs will be dangerously scary once they are 100 percent healthy as a squad. Simply put, the NBA Playoffs can’t come soon enough.