If you ask anyone who follows the NBA, they will likely say there are about four teams with a realistic chance of winning the NBA Championship this season. On Thursday night two of them will be playing each other, as the Cleveland Cavaliers take on the San Antonio Spurs. Cleveland comes in at 27-9 which is tops in the Eastern Conference, while San Antonio comes in at 34-6 which is second best in the NBA but also second in the Western Conference.
The Cavaliers come into this game on a tear, as they have won their last eight games in a row including Tuesday night's overtime win in Dallas. This is Cleveland's fifth game of their current six-game road trip, and it will be their toughest test yet.
The Cavaliers are obviously led by LeBron James who is having another MVP-caliber year, this time kind of under the radar. A lot of talk about James has been that he is struggling to shoot threes (30 percent) and free throws (72 percent) this season, but his numbers are as gaudy as ever. Through 35 games, King James is averaging 25.8 points, 7.4 rebounds and 6.1 assist per game. His 27.3 PER is also fourth best in the NBA.
Cavaliers All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving has been back for 10 games now and seems to be finding his groove. Irving is coming off one of his best games of the year so far when he had 22 points and nine assists against Dallas on Tuesday. So far, Irving has been a little up and down since returning, but that is to be expected. Through 10 games Irving is averaging 16.5 points on 42 percent shooting from the field.
Cleveland will be without point guard Mo Williams for this game as he is attending to a personal matter, but besides that everyone else should be available. Williams hasn't been in the rotation anyway, as Matthew Dellavedova has taken the backup point guard role.
While Cleveland comes into the game red hot, so do the Spurs as they are riding a nine-game winning streak, so something has to give. San Antonio has the home court advantage in this one, and it has yet to lose this season on its home floor, as the Spurs are 22-0 there.
The Spurs are led by Kawhi Leonard who is having a breakout season and will likely be an All-Star for the first time. Leonard is playing tremendous defense like always, but his offense has also been great as he is scoring 20.2 points per game and making a whopping 48 percent of his threes. Last year's Defensive Player of the Year is now a huge threat on offense whenever he touches the ball.
LaMarcus Aldridge's transition into becoming a Spur was not as easy as many people would have thought but he seems to be finding his grove now. In his last two games Aldridge has scored 25 and 22 points respectively while shooting 61 percent from the field so he comes into this one hot. On the season Aldridge is second on the team with his 16.2 points per game and leads the team with his 9.1 rebounds per game.
The Spurs are fully healthy heading into this game and aren't expected to rest anyone so they too should be at full strength.
The two teams split the series last season with each winning on the other team's home court. The Cavaliers win in San Antonio was the last time the Spurs lost at home and they hope to end the streak now too. This could be an NBA finals preview so it should be a very good game.
The game is scheduled to tip off at 8 P.M. Eastern time on TNT and to watch the live broadcast go here. For the Cavaliers radio broadcast go here and for the Spurs radio broadcast go here.
