CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Cavaliers appear to have had an easy path in going 9-0 in the playoffs, with a chance to push it to 10 this evening in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Toronto Raptors.
While the Oklahoma City Thunder and Golden State Warriors seem destined for a lengthy series, the theory is that whoever emerges will have been battle-tested and primed for a Finals slugfest.
As great as they're performing, the Cavaliers haven't faced an opponent capable of pushing them in these playoffs. There hasn't been much adversity to deal with. The inferior opposition has laid down at pressurized points of games, and the talent and depth of the Cavaliers has prevailed.
Does Cleveland need to drop a game here or there to experience some hardships? LeBron James says that's not how it works.
"No, I don't think we have to lose," James said. "We don't want to lose. That's not what we're here to do. We want to win every game that we step on the floor. We've been challenged in this postseason, multiple times by Detroit and also by Atlanta in the first two series. We just persevered and were able to come back from it and win those games. So, we don't want to lose."
The Pistons did give the Cavaliers their stiffest competition. They managed to keep the games close, but their playoff inexperience and lack of playmakers were too much to overcome. Cleveland always snatched control down the stretch.
The Atlanta Hawks didn't stand a chance in the second round, and the likelihood of the Raptors stealing a game in this series is looking slim at this point. During these nine games, there has not been a sense that the Cavaliers were in trouble.
Their counterparts in the West have experienced that pressure. Whether or not that will play a role in The Finals is anybody's guess, but from James' perspective, all the Cavs can do is play who is on the schedule, and they're trying to win.
"That's not our mindset, should never be our mindset," James said about if it's good to go through a difficult postseason period. "I don't get when people say you need to lose a game to go through something. I think we've gone through some things and if we happen to lose a game we have to be able to bounce back from it, but that's not our mindset."
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