The Golden State Warriors are an incredible 68-7. The San Antonio Spurs are a just-as-ludicrous 63-12. The Cleveland Cavaliers, though obviously a very good team, are 53-22. Nevertheless, despite the record and recent weeks of turmoil, Kyrie Irving is convinced the Cavaliers are the team to beat in the NBA.
Chris Haynes of Cleveland.com reports:
“We’re still to the team to beat honestly, regardless of what anybody else says,” he said after the 107-87 win over the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday. “‘[Pundits talking about] what we need and what we don’t need and what we need to get better at. . . . ‘ Us internally, we know we have to improve on a lot of things but we’ve just got to handle business as professionals and continue to get better.”
Clarification was needed. I asked him if he’s saying the Cavaliers are the team to beat in the Eastern Conference or in the entire league. He didn’t backtrack.
“I feel like we’re the team to beat,” he replied.
That’s an interesting statement, considering that just last week the Cavs lost to the Nets and the Rockets, not to mention that just a little while earlier there were reports of the team being unhappy with Irving’s score-first mindset. Then again, these sorts of proclamations are commonplace in the NBA. No player is going to give a fully reasonable assessment of their team; Irving isn’t going to say “I feel like we’re the third-or-fourth-best team in the league.” He could go the LeBron James route of sending cryptic messages to his team through social media, but that’s not his style.
In fact, maybe Irving’s iron-clad confidence is the boost the team needs in light of all of LeBron’s comments — a weird sort of good cop, bad cop situation. The Cavs have the talent to win a championship, they just haven’t quite clicked as most thought they would. Maybe Irving’s just trying to inject some positive vibes into the atmosphere as his team prepares for the challenge of returning to the NBA Finals for the second year in a row.
