There’s a reason that despite all of the great teams in NBA history, only one (the Michael Jordan led 1995-96 led Bulls) have managed to win 70 regular season games.
The NBA season is long. Fatigue, injuries, and complacency can hit even the great teams every now and then, not to mention the fact that in the NBA any team has the talent to beat any other on any given night. LeBron James has had his fair share of accomplishments, but he’s never had more than 66 wins in a season. While the Warriors seem to be in a position to perhaps become the second team to reach the 70-win threshold, LeBron’s Cavs – despite being an impressive 11-4 – don’t seem to be playing on that level.
Cleveland is still in first place in the East, but if LeBron was coming into this season expecting his team to compete for 70 wins, it’s not surprising he’s been disappointed.
When speaking to Jason Lloyd of Ohio.com, LeBron talked about how difficult it is to be in a position to finish with less than 13 losses at the end of the year.
“You’ve got to have talent, man. You gotta have talent. You gotta have talent. That’s the No. 1 thing,” he said. “No matter if you’ve got the greatest system in the world, you gotta have talent to be able to equalize that and execute that. But I don’t know. It’d have been great to be on a team to win 70 games, it’s just another feat in your career.”
Cleveland will be fine at the end of the year and they are still the heavy favorites to finish first in the East, but it can’t be sitting well with LeBron that the team that beat him in the Finals last year is the team that everyone is talking about breaking the wins record thanks to a 16-0 start. LeBron has already commented on how the Warriors look “more hungry” than Cleveland does, and even threw a little shade at Golden State’s hot start saying they were the healthiest team in NBA history.
But LeBron’s feeling about the Warriors likely comes more from frustration over his own team. The Cavs don’t have everything figured out just yet despite their solid record, and James just this month called the Cavs “not a great team right now” and Cleveland had a “players only” meeting after a rough loss in Toronto in Wednesday.
The Cavaliers are on pace to win 60 games this year which is still pretty fantastic, but if the King is hoping to match MJ’s (and Steph Curry’s?) 70 someday, it won’t be this season.
(Via Ohio.com)
