Why is it so hard to believe that Cleveland can go down 3-1? The Cavs are not who you think they ar

The fact of the matter is the Cavs are not a very good team.  They’re just not that great, I’m sorry.  I know they finished the regular season with the best record in the NBA registering 66 wins, but that’s only because they played hard every single night with outstanding teamwork, chemistry and effort.  Cleveland played at maximum intensity for all 82 games; they didn’t take any nights off.  They weren’t a team like the Lakers who could just play 60%, turn the switch on and off, rely on talent, and still get by.  They had had to kill themselves to get everything.  If they didn’t work hard and play as a team it wasn’t going to happen.  Cleveland overachieved so much to get all those wins.  They’re not nearly as good as their regular season record would have you believe.  There’s no conceivable way the Cavs could have won more games than they did, and they could have easily lost countless others.  That’s not meant as a slight against them at all.  How many teams in the NBA perform above their abilities instead of vice versa?  The Cavs squeezed everything they possibly could from their limited amount of resources to accomplish what they did.  They’re not an elite team though.

Much of the Cleveland’s regular season success was largely due to their dominating home record of 39-2.  Quicken Loans Arena became a place where road teams came to perish.  The Cavs felt completely invincible and indestructible there.  They played with so much confidence and had such a winning aura that most road teams simply couldn’t handle the atmosphere.  I don’t think it’s any coincidence though that the only two teams to defeat the Cavs at home this season are still standing in these playoffs.  Both the team they are currently facing (Orlando) and the team they could potentially face next series (Los Angeles) have both come onto Cleveland’s turf and escaped with wins.   Those two teams don’t fear the Cavs on their home-court like the rest of the NBA does.  So right there Cleveland loses a ton of their edge psychologically.  You aren’t going to intimidate these teams.  There’s a ton of good clubs that went into QLA probably thinking they couldn’t win the games.  Well if you don’t think you can win, you aren’t going to win, and that’s what happened.   But right now Cleveland has lost ultimately their greatest strength, intimatidation on home-court.  It’s a thing of the past.