I do believe them when they say he wants to stay or would like to stay in Cleveland but they gotta give him a reason to stay and what's that? How do they improve the roster? Kevin Love? They tried to move him last offseason to no avail. The 8th pick they got tonight, what does that get them? And the "no great options", that's just silly or homerism from Brian. There are options & they've all been talked about.
LeBron's dominant 1st quarter killed the Cavs offense for the rest of the game. It programmed most of the other guys as spectators and it sapped LeBron's energy so much he didn't recover. It was just a matter of time before they collapsed. The big talent gap and the Cavs lack of togetherness appear to be too much for even LeBron to overcome. Love dropped 22/15 and all it did was prevent another blowout. If the Celtics avoid big scoring droughts, Cavs can't beat them.
LeBron went to opposite extremes. His passiveness in game 1 clearly hurt the Cavs. They needed him to ride to the rescue early and he refused. Reminds me of what Kobe did a couple of times. When your lone superstar looks THAT disinterested in scoring, maybe he's trying to prove a point instead of being unselfish. In the 1st quarter tonight he went overboard the other way. The sweet spot is in the middle. LeBron has to start out in attack mode but he can't take 13 shots in the 1st quarter. That is insane!
So are Celtics an elite team or is the East (Cavaliers included) just very mediocre? When Kyrie went down, everyone thought they were done. It was even suspected that teams were tanking to get 7th seed. If Celtics are for real, then they will be the most stacked team when Irving and Hayward return next season!