How The Cavaliers’ Big 3 Destroyed Narratives In Game 7

Prior to the 2016 NBA Finals, all three members of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ ‘Big Three’ faced significant questions.

By winning the NBA Title, the Cleveland Cavaliers destroyed the media narratives that plagued them throughout the regular season. Their star players Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love and LeBron James were also able to change their own career narratives in the biggest game of their respective careers.

Kyrie Irving

Despite being just 24 years old, Irving has faced many critics during his five-year career. While Irving possesses arguably the best handle in the league, pundits and fans have lamented his over-dribbling at times and his penchant for isolation basketball.

Offensively, Irving has often been criticized for not having a high number of assists, apparently showing his inability to be a ‘true’ point-guard. Throughout his career, Irving has averaged 5.5 assists per game, a relatively low number for a point-guard, and averaged a career-low 4.7 dimes during the 2015-16 season.

While Irving’s offensive game has its flaws, his defense is the side of the game that irks many. Leading up to the NBA Finals, many wondered how he would stop the two-time MVP and NBA scoring champion, Stephen Curry.

What ensued was Irving throughly outplaying the unanimous MVP throughout the series, as he averaged 27.1 points through seven NBA Finals games. After struggling in the first two games of the series, Irving exploded for two 30-point and one 41-point effort in the next three games. Irving was once again outstanding in Game 7, capping off a 26-point effort with one of the biggest shots in NBA Finals history.

Despite averaging just 3.9 assists per game during the Finals, Irving showed terrific poise and played a large part in the Cavaliers’ defense being able to limit Curry’s impact.

Kevin Love

The main knock on Kevin Love as he arrived in Cleveland from Minnesota was that he was an ’empty stats’ guy. While Love consistently had terrific statistics in the Twin Cities, he was unable to lead the Timberwolves into the playoffs during his six-year tenure.

Like Irving, Love has been largely criticized for his defense, or lack thereof, appearing on several vines where he is hilariously out of position on the defensive end.

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While Love had a great start to the playoffs, posting eight consecutive double-doubles as the Cavaliers swept the first two rounds, he struggled during the NBA Finals. With the Warriors’ going small a lot of the time, many predicted that Love would be unplayable in the series, and that proved to be the case throughout the first six games.

Through six games, Love averaged just 25.6 minutes, 8.4 points and 5.4 rebounds per game, hardly a good return for a player on a max contract.

However, in Game 7 Love showed why the Cavaliers have invested so heavily in him. In a game where neither team led by more than eight points, Love had a game-high plus-19 in his 30 minutes on the court. While Love scored just nine points, he grabbed a Cavalier-high 14 rebounds and had a pivotal defensive play in the final minute of the game.

Kevin Love arrived in Cleveland as an ’empty stats’ guy and not a winner. He leaves the NBA Finals having proved his worth on the biggest stage of them all.

LeBron James

The King’s Instagram post following the Game 7 win really says it all. Throughout the season, many anointed Curry as the new face of the league and the best player on the planet, a title James had held for the best part of the last decade.

The media said James had lost his athleticism, he was unable to blow by defenders and dominate like he once did. Further evidence of James’ decline seemingly laid in his shooting statistics that showed him to be one of the most inefficient shooters in the NBA as his three-point percentage hovered below 30 percent for most of the regular-season.

Despite his offensive struggles, the most glaring evidence of James’ decline was on the defensive end. Once a perennial All-Defense player, James’ regular season defense caused many to believe that his best defensive days were behind him.

Obviously irked by the premature anointment of Curry, James went out of his way to defensively lock down Curry, recording several highlight blocks on the Warriors’ star guard.

Like Irving, James struggled in the first two games of the series, but absolutely exploded from Games 3 to 7, finishing with averages of 29.7 points, 11.3 rebounds, 8.9 assists, 2.6 steals and 2.3 blocks per game. James’ exploits made him the unanimous choice for the Finals MVP.

However, while James’ offense and his blocks on Curry were impressive, it was one play in the dying stages of Game 7 that showed why James is still one of the premier defenders in the league. After a missed shot, Curry and Andre Igoudala were able to get in transition and a Curry pass had Igoudala with a seemingly open layup.

James had other ideas.

James’ signature chase-down block was a play reminiscent of his athletic prime, and a sign that he is far from being a spent force.

Throughout the 2015-16 regular season, the Cavaliers and their Big 3 in particular were subjected to various media narratives. Despite their impressive play in the Eastern Conference Playoffs, many doubted their championship credentials.

James, Love and Irving are likely to be the subject of media narratives next season as well.

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However, they will have to be referred to as NBA Champions first and foremost.