BROOKLYN – King James beheaded the Brooklyn Nets during an epic gathering at Barclays Center, and it is now safe to say that royalty is a word befitting the Cleveland Cavaliers.
With the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge sitting on one side of the court and America’s most popular couple – Jay-Z and Beyonce – directly across, LeBron James ruled with an iron fist.
Fittingly, James put on a show once Prince William and Kate Middleton arrived courtside midway through the third quarter.
James dazzled the crowd with a fancy alley-oop to Tristan Thompson and a fadeaway jumper in front of Jay-Z that took his breath away.
After entering the half up 50-49, Cleveland dominated the third quarter (35-18) and never looked back.
Cleveland has now won seven consecutive games to improve to 12-7 overall after starting out 5-7.
I spoke with Cavaliers forward Kevin Love after the game to find out what have been the keys to success during this stretch.
“I think just on both ends just putting it all together,” Love told SheridanHoops. “We’ve had lapses even still, but I think we’ve been able to put together better basketball and let our defense dictate our offense.”
After struggling early to find their niches within the offense, the trio of James, Love and Kyrie Irving has begun to complement each other.
“I think just more than anything spacing the floor,” Love told SheridanHoops. “Those are guys that like to play downhill. For me, if I need to go into the corner, if I need to go into the dunker’s spot in order to help these guys operate, that’s what I’m going to do. I think that we’re all finding each other on different parts of the floor, but players one through 15 are doing a great job of really helping each other.”
While Love touched upon the X’s and O’s of the winning streak, Irving believes the team’s psyche has changed for the better.
“I think the most important thing is that we’re just having fun playing the game right now, but also our focus level is definitely at an all-time high,” Irving said. “We’re growing together as a team and starting to figure it out, but we understand that this is a process and every game is going to be different and we have to ask ourselves to do a little bit more.”
James was much more abrupt when asked why the team has turned it around.
“Defense,” James said.
During the winning streak, the Cavaliers have held opponents to 43 percent shooting from the field and 33 percent from beyond the arc.
The improved chemistry between the star trio and the extra effort on defense has coach David Blatt pleased.
“I think we’ve played pretty balanced games offensively and defensively, particularly in the latter half of that streak,” Blatt said. “This was a new team coming in and obviously a talented one, but I think there’s a process to anything and certainly to the dynamic of team building. We’ve been getting it and we’ve been doing a pretty good job at both ends of the court.”
Most rookie coaches aren’t expected to deliver a championship in their first season, but Blatt is not the average rookie coach.
Consider this: Blatt is one of only five coaches in history that has won a EuroBasket title (2007), a Euroleague title (2014) and an Olympic medal (bronze, 2012) as Grantland pointed out.
Blatt’s biggest adjustment during the winning streak has been getting James and Irving to play off of each other fluidly.
“They’ve done a lot differently,” an Eastern Conference scout told SheridanHoops. “Basically in the half court they switched positions around and LeBron plays point 80 percent or more of the time he’s on the floor. Kyrie is usually off the ball, often on the weak side, for catch-and-shoot opportunities.”
Irving has adjusted his game the most out of the trio. Primarily a point guard who routinely dominated the ball throughout his career at all levels, Irving has transitioned into a scoring playmaker off the ball.
It also helps when you have the best player on the planet and he’s a willing team player too.
“The main thing with LeBron, particularly from a coach’s standpoint, is he wants to win and he’s about the right things,” Blatt said. “Together with that, when you have such an unusual talent on your team, or talents, like we do, you really have to be conscious of helping them to find their spots and to find their rhythm within the team context. A guy like LeBron really helps you because he’s so team orientated to begin with. But at the same time you’ve got to be constantly conscious of the guys around him too because he’s a guy that it’s easy to stand and watch.”
For James to lead the Cavaliers to the elusive title that he never won during his first stint in Cleveland he’ll have to get contributions from former first-round picks Dion Waiters and Tristan Thompson.
“The best teacher in life is experience,” James said.
After failing to make the playoffs during the past four seasons, James is attempting to develop a winning culture in Cleveland by helping his younger teammates break bad habits that were developed during the losing regimes.
Thompson is a nightly double-double threat while Waiters can score 20 points on any given night off the bench.
At 12-7, James knows the Cavaliers haven’t arrived yet and wants the team to maintain the mental fortitude shown during the winning streak.
“Even keeled,” James said when asked about the confidence in the locker room. “It’s a long season. We’re even keeled. We don’t get too high. We don’t get too low. We’re a team that’s not good enough to get too confident right now. We have to go out and continue to improve.”
If the Cavaliers continue to improve as rapidly as they have over the past seven games, they’ll be amongst the elite in the East with the Toronto Raptors and Chicago Bulls vying for the top spot in the conference.
Michael Scotto is an NBA columnist for SheridanHoops.com. Follow him on Twitter.