The Cavs came into the playoffs as a two seed after a rollercoaster regular season.
A mixture of LeBron James returning and a jumble of new players jumping aboard caused a season of mixed feelings between the players, fans, and staff. Regardless of what happened throughout the season, the Cavs still ended up fulfilling most expectations by making the playoffs and clinching a high seed with that nonetheless.
In their first playoff appearance since LeBron was last there in the 2009 season, the Cavs swept the Celtics in the first series matchup.
The Celtics didn’t let the Cavs get away with the sweep that easy. In the final game of the series in Boston, the game got very chippy early on starting with Celtics’ Kelly Olynyk getting in a tie up with Cavs’ Kevin Love for a loose ball rebound and dislocated Love’s shoulder. Love’s teammate Kendrick Perkins looked to have retaliated later on by laying out Jae Crowder. After that, tempers flared again when J.R. Smith took a backhand swing on Crowder under the rim resulting in a Smith ejection and Crowder injury forcing both to leave the game.
The Cavs ended up losing Smith to suspension for two games of the following series with the Bulls and Love for the rest of the playoffs altogether.
Love averaged 14.3 points and 7 rebounds per games in the playoffs. He was the third leading scorer on the roster. Smith averaged 9.8 points per game in the playoffs.
The new starting lineup for the Cavs game one against the Bulls would be James, Irving, Miller, Mozgov, and Shumpert.
The Cavs fell to the Bulls in their first game at home with James scoring a below average 19 points and coughing up six turnovers. He also shot just 9/22 from the field.
“I’ve never gone into a game saying I’ll be ultra-aggressive to start out,” James said. “I always have to feel out, but it was too much feel-out because I only had two shots (after 10 minutes).”
“I might have to change my mindset a little bit,” James said.
The Cavs ended up winning game two commandingly by starting out hot and never giving up the lead. The Cavs led by 20 points after just the first quarter.
James put up 33 points to lead the Cavs in the victory as Irving, Shumpert, and Jones also chipped in double digit performances.
James also put up 29 shots which is his highest shot total he’s had in the playoffs in six years.
“We’re a little short-handed, so I have to kind of change my approach and be ultra-aggressive, which I’m not accustomed to doing, especially taking that many shots,” James said. “I’m not a high-volume shooter. But that’s what I’m going to do if that’s what my guys want me to do.”
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