Warm and fuzzy feelings aside, the Cavaliers did what they had to do against the struggling Lakers to close out the season’s first half in style on Wednesday night at The Q.
The victory was Cleveland’s third straight over a Western Conference foe heading into the All-Star Break – having dropped the Pelicans and Kings in convincing fashion heading into Kobe Bryant’s final appearance on the North Coast.
Since their win over the Lakers last January – the first of two victories at Staples Center that turned their season around – the Cavaliers have been very good against the West. With Wednesday’s win, the Wine and Gold are now 30-6 in their last 36 regular season games against the West, including a 16-5 mark this season.
For years, the West has been viewed as the league’s superior Conference. The prevailing attitude in terms of an NBA Championship is that the East is fortunate that loaded Western Conference teams beat each other up on the way to the Finals – and there’s some truth to that argument. Last year, the East put three 50-win teams into the playoffs (with the Hawks winning an even 60). In the West, seven of the eight playoff teams won 50-plus, with the Warriors leading the league with 67.
This year, the Cavaliers head into the Break with the East’s top record at 38-14. Three Western Conference teams will head into All-Star Weekend with better records – with the Warriors eyeing up the Bulls’ 72-10 gold standard from 1995-96.
Two of Golden State’s wins have come against the Cavaliers. But Cleveland is 2-1 against the other two squads – San Antonio and Oklahoma City. After losing by four to the Spurs at the AT&T Center, the Wine and Gold thumped Gregg Popovich’s squad by two touchdowns at The Q. Cleveland travels to Oklahoma City in their first road stop after the All-Star Break. The Cavs dropped the Thunder, 104-100, in OKC’s visit to Cleveland back in mid-December.
The Q has not been a friendly place for Western Conference opponents. Including their win over Kobe and the Lakers on Wednesday, the Cavaliers have now won 18 of their last 19 against the West (10-1 so far this season) on the corner of Huron and Ontario.
Those numbers are nice, but when a team is contending for an NBA Championship, they only matter in June. And, unfortunately, the Cavaliers went 1-2 in their six-game Finals series against Golden State – the latest Western Conference team to win the title.
In fact, the last time a LeBron-less Eastern Conference team won the whole enchilada was 2008, when the Celtics dropped the Lakers in six. But even with Boston’s win in 2008, the East has captured the title just five times in the last 17 years, and only three franchises following the Bulls’ three-peat from 1996-98 – Miami, Boston and Detroit – have hoisted the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
But the Cavaliers’ run through the Western Conference has been quite impressive. Along with the home wins over the Clippers, Thunder and Spurs, the Wine and Gold took down two-thirds of the Texas Triangle at the end of a grueling six-game, 12-day road trip. They clobbered the Grizzlies in the Grindhouse and have already swept the Suns and Timberwolves.
If everything goes as planned, the Wine and Gold will get another opportunity to face the best in the West in June. Until then they’ll have to settle for their current trend of topping the opposing Conference in the regular season. They’ll get their first opportunity immediately after the Break – taking on an Oklahoma City that’s gone 22-5 since they left Cleveland.
