Are the Cavaliers tough enough to compete for an NBA title? Doesn't look like it

Hopefully the Cavs have been spending some kumbaya time together, while watching the NBA Finals slugfest between the Pacers and Thunder. If not, shame on them. The league's postseason tournament has carried on, minus the paper tigers from Cleveland, which, after posting winning streaks in the regular season of 15, 12, and 16 games, while authoring the second-best record in the league, (64-18), and the second-best winning percentage (.780), were one of the first teams eliminated. Throw in Cleveland's four-game sweep in their first-round mauling of the Miami Cupcakes and the Cavs' went skipping down the yellow brick road with a record of 68-18, a winning percentage of .829, and LeBron was nowhere in sight. This Cavs roster appeared to be the team's best group since LeBron de-LeBroned. The Cavs' roster included multiple all-stars, the NBA's coach of the year in Kenny Atkinson, a terrific bench, an enthusiastic, appreciative and loyal fan base, and the one commodity that every trophy-seeking NBA franchise needs to be considered a legitimate championship threat: A bonafide superstar. The Cavs not only checked that box, they rode it. Oh, how they rode it! They had no choice, because they had only one Donovan Mitchell and all Mitchell was asked to do was everything. Playoff basketball is different in many and all ways and it's especially so when a team doesn't have a lot of playoff experience. The Cavs were bounced from the playoffs by the Knicks two years ago. Last year, it took seven games and a totally exhausted Donovan Mitchell for the Cavs to win a seven-game series with the Orlando Magic. This year, the Cavs, coming off one of the best regular seasons in franchise history, saw their season come to a crashing halt, thanks to the Pacers, who in the regular season lost 14 more games than the Cavs. None of that mattered, however, when they threw the ball up to start the Cavs-Pacers series. If you are a Cavs fan, an honest Cavs fan, it didn't take you or anyone else very long to realize that one of these two teams was almost maniacal in its desire to win. The other team was the Cavs. The physicality with which the Pacers played seemed to overwhelm the Cavs. That physicality was instantaneous and unrelenting, as it should have been. The Cavs, playing at home, lost the first game by nine points. The Cavs, again playing at home, lost the second game by a point. Game 3 was played at Indiana and the Cavs won by 22. Go figure. Surely the Cavs must be on track now, right? Wrong. The Cavs lost the rest of the games in the series and, if you saw it, you saw what you saw. What you saw was one team playing with maniacal intensity. The other team was the Cavs. There is no need to dissect anything more about that so-called series. What needs dissecting is the Cavs' laissez faire approach to the competition. In case you hadn't noticed, NBA playoff games have nothing in common with square dancing. NBA playoff games are wars. There is a lot at stake in all playoff games and, if you have watched any of this year's batch of slugfests, you don't have to be told that this has nothing in common with a company picnic. Everyone seems to know that or at least acknowledges it when it comes to playoff time. Everyone that is except for the Cavs, who in quickly getting bounced out of this year's tournament, by a team over which the Clevelanders had the home court advantage, raised all sorts of troubling questions. How can a team that is so good in the regular season be so la-de-da in the playoffs? Well, here is one unsolicited theory: when it comes to playoff time, are the Cavs mean enough? Let's answer that question with another question: have you been watching the slugfests that the NBA playoffs have become? In almost every game there is a bruhaha, or even a no-holds-barred hullabaloo of some type or another. The Pacers, who long ago moved past the docile Cavs as any sort of team that should rattle the nerves of a community that enjoys driving cars at high speeds, are one win away from being NBA champions. The Cavs are not. Basketball, especially playoff basketball, has evolved into a street fight. It's every man for himself and every team for itself. That's including the Cavs, who for some reason don't mind getting pushed around by various and sundry push-around artists. Have the Cavs, as a group, ever watched some of these NBA rugby matches? Game 6 of the NBA Finals between Indiana and Oklahoma City looked more like a Browns-Steelers game. Do the Cavs have a taste for that type of action or is it time to call Myles Garrett? Contact Jim Ingraham at (440) 329-7135 or jingraham4@gmail.com.