The NBA world is naturally going to keep believing that LeBron James and the Cavaliers are the team to beat once the playoffs begin this weekend.
But sometimes it feels like we've been here before, and there are a lot of things about the 2017 Cleveland Cavaliers that bring to mind the 2014 Miami Heat - the one that lost in embarrassing fashion to the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals.
But they still have a chance. Attempts to secure a rim protector - from Andrew Bogut to Larry Sanders and most recently Edy Tavares - have fallen flat, and it looks as if Cleveland - which became the third National Basketball Association team in history to make 1,000 3-pointers in a season and finished with 1,067 - will be trying to outscore the Pacers and everyone else it meets into June.
No. 7 IN and No. 8 Chicago both won earlier Monday, and would have clinched playoff trips with a Heat loss. Offensively, execution hurt us-not running the plays right.
That, and get some assistance. Even with a victory, the Heat would still need a loss by the Indiana Pacers (41-40) or the Chicago Bulls (40-41) to reach the postseason.
Here's Wednesday's slate: Miami hosts Washington (which is locked into the No. 4 spot), Chicago hosts NBA-worst Brooklyn, and IN hosts Atlanta. Many of these fans who paid huge amounts of money to see LeBron, of course, got home late and then woke up early to go to work.
Power forward Kevin Love had a double-double effort with 25 points and 10 rebounds, while Channing Frye (3-of-5 from three-point range) and Kyle Korver (4-of-8 from three-point range) had 21 and 18 points, respectively.
Willie Reed scored 16, Josh Richardson had 15 and James Johnson scored 12 for Miami. The Cavs were also without Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson, and fell a game behind Boston for No. 1 in the East. James was listed as having a right calf strain, and Irving has soreness in his surgically repaired left knee.
"I thought the effort was great, even though we made some mistakes on defense and execution down the stretch", Cleveland head coach Tyronn Lue said.
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IN took advantage of the backups by pulling out to a 22-15 lead after one quarter and starting the third quarter on a 9-2 run to turn a seven-point into a 59-45 cushion. They became only the third team in league history to blow a 26-point lead in the fourth quarter and lose. From the many people I talk to daily on radio and TV, you would think the team was lucky to sneak into the playoffs as a seventh or eighth seed this year.
Miami survived despite two Cleveland four-point plays in overtime, including one by Williams with 34 seconds left that put the Heat down one.
Jones was on the Cavaliers championship team last season and played an important role in Game 6 of the NBA Finals, which forced the championship-clinching Game 7. This team is much more comfortable with its back against the wall and when everybody says we can't.
According to Cleveland.com's Joe Vardon, the Cavaliers are considering signing their former center, Anderson Varejão.
"We had a very rocky, adverse regular season", Griffin said. Cavs rookie G Kay Felder (left ankle sprain) didn't play on a night when he otherwise would have been out there. Williams had a career-worst 10 turnovers.
Heat: Dion Waiters (ankle) was listed as questionable, but missed his 12th consecutive game. James Harden shot two of nine for 14 points, well under his 29.3 average.
As the Cavaliers have struggled mightily over the last two seasons in games played without James, the result was a painfully habitual version of the inevitable as the Wine and Gold blew an 11-point fourth quarter lead, ultimately losing in overtime.
"I hear all the talk or whatever, I don't listen to it", Lue said.
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