Wednesday NBA Roundup: Motivated LeBron James Has Awoken Sleeping-Giant Cavs

In smashing the New York Knicks with casual ferocity, LeBron James turned a personal grudge into a springboard for his team.

James started out by setting up his fellow Cleveland Cavaliers in the 126-94 steamrolling, seemingly content to delegate retribution for Phil Jackson’s “posse” comments to Jackie MacMullan of ESPN.com last month.

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A refresher in brief of Jackson talking about James in Miami: “You can’t hold up the whole team because you and your mom and your posse want to spend an extra night in Cleveland.”

At no point before the game did James indicate he was out for revenge, but his focus in the early going was undeniable—and on-brand.

James sought out Kevin Love for early looks that led to a 16-point first quarter for the power forward. Perhaps by design or perhaps by dint of basketball karma, James’ facilitation empowered Love, who returned the favor with several sweet outlet passes to his teammates in that first period:

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It was almost as if James was satisfied sticking it to the Knicks by proxy.

Until this happened:

LeBron has ARRIVED at MSG. @ESPNNBA #NBARapidReplay pic.twitter.com/dZD4sE6V8q

— NBA (@NBA) December 8, 2016

James’ burst contributed to a 15-point halftime lead that effectively ended the game, prompting the kind of measured analysis you’d expect from a contest decided early.

This example comes from Scott Cacciola of the New York Times:

LeBron has missed a shot tonight.

— Scott Cacciola (@ScottCacciola) December 8, 2016

And here’s Tracy Morgan at halftime, helping buoy the Knicks’ spirits with some positive talk:

According to Al Iannazzone of Newsday, James may have been eyeballing Jackson as his Cavs ran roughshod over the Knicks:

LeBron keeps looking in the crowd after he scores, right in Phil’s direction

— Al Iannazzone (@Al_Iannazzone) December 8, 2016

But, to be fair, it was always going to be tough to determine whether James was bringing anything extra for New York, seeing as his last two meetings with the team resulted in his notching triple-doubles. In this one, he managed 25 points, seven assists and six rebounds in 32 minutes. Cacciola didn’t tweet about the other two, but James actually missed three shots, finishing 7-of-10.

In the end, James sat back and enjoyed himself, resting as Kyrie Irving goofed around:

Kyrie doinWorkWorkWorkWorkWork@ESPNNBA #NBARapidReplay pic.twitter.com/eRNovOPgkw

— NBA (@NBA) December 8, 2016

This wasn’t exactly a case of revenge being a dish best served cold. It was more like revenge being a dish best served when outsourced to teammates because you can’t be bothered to take the target seriously…and then maybe you throw in some personal tidbits of vengeance just for show. Basically, James succeeded in sonning Jackson and the Knicks by letting them know he didn’t even need to try all that hard to embarrass them.

And, as retribution goes, that’s pretty badass.

There’s a related element of Cleveland’s coasting here. If you wanted to get critical, you could cite this as another example of the disinterest that sometimes comes back to bite great teams. But on the other hand, demoralizing an opponent with this level of dismissiveness sends a pretty strong message about Cleveland’s potency:

In the end, all this does is underscore James’ uniqueness and the Cavs’ prime position in the East. LBJ showed flashes of his own extra gear, but mostly smoked the Knicks by getting the best out of his teammates.

And, I guess, the bigger lesson is pretty clear: Don’t give James a reason to care.

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