Cavs Fan Guide: Gear Up for the 2016 NBA Finals

If you've caught the #ALLin216 fever like us, here is your guide to gear up for cheering on the Cleveland Cavaliers as they return to the West Coast to face off against defending champs the Golden State Warriors when the NBA Finals start June 2. Whether it's a cup of joe or wine-and-gold duds for your pooch, get in the spirit to root on the Cavs with these fun finds. 

Take after Australian guard Matthew Dellavedova and enjoy in a pregame cup of java with his own G’Day Mate! specialty Arabica coffee blend available at Cleveland Coffee Co. ($13.50 per pound). Get even more hyped up by reading our January interview with Delly about what drives his unconventional coffee habit. 816 Huron Road, Cleveland, 216-861-8358

For some Cavs spirit all the way down to the toes, check out some custom-made Cavs socks from League Ready Customs ($15). You'll be sure to catch some attention walking down East Fourth Street with this pair.

                                                     

If getting yourself involved isn’t enough, you can get your pets in the zone too with some Cavaliers jerseys, bandanas and collars from CLE Pets, which we featured in our May issue. Check out these mesh fabric jerseys ranging from $25.99-$27. 5th Street Arcades, 530 Euclid Ave., Suite 23-1, Cleveland, 216-905-6789

photo by Dana Miller

After the Cavaliers set a NBA record of the most 3-pointers in a playoff game against the Atlanta Hawks in May, Tony Madalone, store owner of Fresh Brewed Tees, came up with some designs to show off the Cavs' accomplishment. Check out these two for $26.99 online. Shirts can also be found at the Cavaliers Team Shop at The Q. freshbrewedtees.com, 216-618-1912

Has anyone ever wished that the Cavs released a mixtape? Well, Ilthy has released an #ALLIN Mixtape shirt for $35 available in three different colors, featuring J.R. Smith, LeBron James, Kevin Love, Kyrie Irving, Tristan Thompson and Iman Shumpert. ilthy.com

Get pumped up with Homage's recently released line of licensed Cavaliers shirts from $32-$36 in a variety of designs just in time for the Finals. 235 Main St., Westlake, 440-925-4178

photo by Dana Miller

And, must we not forget about the Cavs’ newest unofficial mascot, Lil' Kev. He’s been on the journey with the team throughout the 2016 playoffs, as forward Richard Jefferson carries a laminated picture of him and documents it on his entertaining behind-the-scenes Snapchat feed. Now, you too, can sport some Lil’ Kev with a shirt from Redbubble for under $30. 

If you were inspired by ESPN's 30 for 30 Believeland film, show everyone all we need to do is believe that our team and city are champions with the help of CLE Clothing Co.'s Believeland shirt ($25) and other similar variations. 342 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, 216-736-8879; 11435 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, 216-465-9595

GV Art & Design said it well: "No one deserves it more," in this Win One For the Land T-shirt ($28). 17411 Detroit Ave., Lakewood, 216-273-7188; 38038 Second St., Willoughby, 440-525-5240

NBA Finals: Game 4

Pregame
We've recruited ESPN the Mag contributing writer and Crooked River Burning author Mark Winegardner to help us cover the 2015 NBA Finals — maybe our best chance in 51 years for that elusive title. But he's not #AllinCLE. Not yet anyway.
After a 96-91 win over the Golden State Warriors in which Matthew Dellavedova had to be taken from the arena on a stretcher after severe cramping, the Cavs have taken a 2-1 lead in the NBA Finals. Tonight, it's a pivotal Game 4 at The Q. 

Jason Brill, associate editor: Some Tribe game today. Heard you were there. 

Mark Winegardner: Markum looked stellar! Urshela smoked his first HR! Yet something tells me those aren't going to be the two most exciting Cleveland sports moments today. 

MW: All game long there were random burst of "Let's Go, Cavs!" chants. Walking around downtown now. The same is true here. Hardly anyone in the casino not wearing Cavs gear.

JB: At lunch, it was pretty active around  Playhouse Square. It feels like a delivery on the excitement of last July when LeBron announced he was coming back.

MW: Did that excitement ever really wane? Maybe when they were 19-20, I guess.

JB: Maybe the delivery of all that promise. Not going to speak for the city, but I knew they were better than 19-20.

MW: Has any team ever won a championship starting only one guy from its opening lineup?
JB: And that one opening day starter happens to be the best player in the world? Probably not.

JB: And I think Steve would say we're venturing into jinx territory.

MW: And he'd be right!

MW: Warriors gotta be thinking, How the hell are we losing to these guys? Which is probably good for the Cavs.

NBA Finals Game 3

   “If you can bend and not break,” said Cleveland Cavaliers coach David Blatt after last night’s 96-91 win over the Golden State Warriors to take a 2-1 lead in the NBA Finals, “you’ve always got a chance.”
   The guy’s not from here, but he’s starting to sound like the most Cleveland-like Massachusetts-bred joint citizen of Israel you’ve ever met in your life.
   Underestimated. Maligned by outsiders. Threatened with reckless, sadistically gleeful rumors of imminent unemployment.
   As a kid, he was a scrappy, undersized irritant of a point guard whose mother instilled in him a nerdy love of books literally by throwing The Iliad at his head[1]. He grew up to be a vagabond coach widely admired by peers throughout the world but who somehow, until this year, never got what, deep down, he was yearning for — a decent offer to coach in the U.S.
   Yes, after he was hired, LeBron James then fell in his lap, a preposterously lucky break but certainly nothing that made his new gig easy.

   But the coach heard from a young man of his acquaintance  — some kid who was born and raised here  — that in Northeast Ohio, nothing is given. Everything is earned. You work for what you have.
   And that was music to David Blatt’s ears.

Shhhhh!

   Dare we call the glass half full?
   Dare we call the Finals half won?
   Dare we greet the news that a whopping 84 percent[2] of teams that take a 2-1 lead in the Finals go on to win the title with happiness? Rather than, Oh hell, I just jinxed it! Thompson, at least, was a lottery pick and an important part of the team’s rotation from Day One.

Speaking of percentages

   I’ve seen it in person now, with my own eyes, and I can verify that nobody employed by the Cavs has betrayed even a smallest hint of surprise at the play of the replacements for the missing 67 percent of the Big Three.
   As for everybody else, Matthew Dellavedova and Tristan Thompson have emerged as exponentially better players than even the biggest homers would have dared hope.
   Nobody — be they on Dan Gilbert’s payroll or be they otherwise — is suggesting that Cleveland is better off without Kyrie Irving or Kevin Love[3]. In fact, it seems pretty likely that if those guys were healthy, Cleveland would be dominating Golden State rather than eking out wins that make it hard to breathe or get to sleep afterward[4].
   Here’s the thing, though: The Cavs sort of are dominating the Warriors.
   They’re utterly dictating the pace and style of play, marching the ball down the court, slowing the game down, muscling up man-to-man defense and dominating the boards. The Warriors know what they’re doing and, as yet, they’ve been unable to do much about it. Even Golden State’s late-game runs have only once (in their overtime win in Game 1) appreciably altered the pace of play.
   Delly?

   The smartest basketball minds around are scrambling to figure out how this is happening and mostly failing to do so. And then there’s this meme, which, at this point in this exhausting and wondrous season, is probably as good an explanation as any:

   That said, the other players on the Beacon Town Beavers were garbage. Scott “Teen Wolf” Howard had to carry them. But the Cavs’ Teen Wolf is just a difference-making, overachieving role player — “the most Cleveland-like Australian I have ever met in my life,” said David Blatt.
   It’s LeBron, that most regal and fearsome of NBA alpha dogs, who’s carrying this team.

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[1] Yes, it’s more complicated than that. Blatt recalls the incident fondly.

[2] That’s 47 out of 56.

[3] OK, there are a few hot-take hacks out there saying that, but they’re idiots.

[4] Speaking personally. Though I know I’m not alone.

NBA Finals Game 2: Team Grit

   

   Rarely, in the history of seven-game series in any sport has a 1-0 lead felt so insurmountable as it did going into Game 2 of these NBA Finals.

   Cleveland — improbably — surmounted the hell out of it.

   Until yesterday, no team had ever won a Finals game without the services of its second-[1] and third-[2] leading scorers, yet with those guys relegated to hospital beds footnote status, the Cavaliers went into Oracle Arena, where the Golden State Warriors sport the best home-court record in the NBA, dictated the pace of the game from beginning to end, and won, in dreaded overtime[3], 95-93.

   Remind me again why we[4] thought the Cavs were toast?

   They’ve played 106 minutes of basketball, on the road, against the 67-win, best-in-the-NBA Warriors, and led for more than 79 of those minutes.

   They’ve had four opportunities for buzzer-beaters in regulation, two in Game 1 (LeBron and Iman Shumpert), two in Game 2 (LeBron and Tristan Thompson), missed all four, and emerged with the series tied 1-1, with no need to thank anything resembling good luck.

   Matthew Dellavedova, who as recently as the trading deadline seemed to be holding down the position (backup point guard) most in need of an upgrade, started at point guard. And he didn’t start especially well, either, getting torched at both ends of the court by Klay Thompson. But once he switched to NBA MVP Steph Curry (and vice versa), the game turned around. In fact, with Delly guarding him, Curry, probably the best and most resourceful outside shooter in the history of the game, didn’t make a single shot[5].

   The Cavs, who as recently as January were one of the worst defensive teams in the NBA, are winning because they’ve transformed themselves into one of the best. It ain’t always pretty, but no fan base is better equipped to embrace winning ugly than we are.

   That said, don’t try telling Cavs fans that we’re not beholding a vision of rare beauty.

   Behold: LeBron James.

   He entered this season as part of any NBA Mount Rushmore conversation.

   It’s increasingly likely that, however it ends, he has emerged to challenge Michael Jordan as the NBA’s GOAT.

   LeBron has led his team in points, rebounds and assists in 35 playoff games — 11 more than the next two highest[6] combined.

   Michael Jordan never had a stat line in the Finals like LeBron’s 39 point, 16 rebound, 11 assist game yesterday. In fairness, because he never played a single game in the Finals without his two best teammates, Jordan didn’t need to. In the series in which Jordan carried the heaviest load, the 1998 Finals against Utah, he totaled 24 rebounds and 14 assists in six games. In just two games, LeBron has 24 rebounds and 17 assists. Jordan averaged 33.5 points per game. LeBron is averaging 42.5[7].

   Yesterday, the Cleveland Cavaliers celebrated the biggest win in the history of the franchise.

   Now, they, as ever, are following LeBron’s lead and coming home[8].   // Mark Winegardner

                         

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[1] Kyrie Irving, DNP, fractured left kneecap.

[2] Kevin Love, DNP, left arm nearly yanked off by a clumsy Celtic.

[3] So maybe, just maybe, the overtime loss in Game 1 won’t go down in ignominy and history as The Overtime? At minimum, it’s pretty to think so.

[4] Maybe not you, but, yes: me. And pretty much everyone in the NBA chattering class.

[5] Dellavedova has used the playoffs to go from folk hero to damned good player, a journey highlighted by being responsible for postseason career-worst offensive games from former MVP Derrick Rose, current all-star Jeff Teague and now Curry.

[6] Larry Bird with 13 and Tim Duncan with 11.

[7] If you think Jordan shot dramatically better, you’d be wrong; he went 43% from the floor and 31% from three, while LBJ is shooting 40% from the floor and 36% from three.

[8] Me, too! I’m leaving Florida today, flying back to the only place I’ve ever lived that felt like home, where I’ll crash for a few days in my mother-in-law’s spare bedroom so I can cover the Finals for Cleveland Magazine. Stay tuned!