Cleveland Cavaliers: What we learned from All-Star Weekend

It was an exciting All-Star Weekend for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Larry Nance Jr. stole the show on Saturday night with a jaw-dropping performance in the Dunk Contest. LeBron James reminded the rest of the league that this is still his league as he captured the All-Star Game MVP while leading his team to a 145-148 victory over Team Steph.

Larry Nance Jr. was impressive in the Dunk Contest even though he didn’t pull off the victory. He advanced to the final round only to be beaten by Donovan Mitchell of the Utah Jazz thanks to some questionable scoring from the celebrity judges.

Fortunately, the All-Star Game didn’t have that same questionable scoring as LeBron was able to lead his team back from a 13-point deficit with just over six minutes remaining thanks to help from his old friend Kyrie Irving. James gave his team a one point lead with by finishing a layup with 34 seconds to play. He then closed out the game on the defensive end when he and Kevin Durant trapped Steph Curry along the sideline as time was expiring.

LeBron picked up his third All-Star game MVP. He finished the night with a game high 29 points on 12 of 17 shooting which included going four of eight from deep. He also picked up 10 boards and eight helpers in the win.

Here’s what we learned from the eventful weekend.

Larry Nance Jr. can fly.

Nance put on a show on Saturday night. He started off the evening by paying homage to his father by donning his jersey and perfectly copying his iconic dunk.

His most impressive dunk of the night came when he threw the ball off the backboard to himself twice to score a perfect 50.

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We’ve seen Nance’s athleticism during his brief time on the Cavaliers, but we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg. Nance showed everyone just how crazy athletic he really is.

We all can’t wait to see him run the open floor and attack in transition with LeBron and company.

The new All-Star format worked.

The All-Star Game hasn’t been competitive in years. The NBA tried to fix that by instituting the new format of having team captains and having players pick the teams. If this game was any indicator of the future, the All-Star Game is finally competitive again.

While it was an high-scoring affair, the game was competitive throughout. Especially at the end of the game. It felt closer to a real basketball game while keeping the high-flying action that we’ve grown accustomed to seeing at an All-Star game.

We’ll never see an All-Star Game that’s a defensive struggle. Fans don’t tune in to an All-Star Game to see that. But they do want to see competition and that’s what they saw on Sunday night.

A LeBron and Durant trap is impossible to get out of.

Team LeBron sealed the win on the defensive end of the floor. LeBron and Kevin Durant trapped Steph Curry along the sideline as time was expiring. As you’d expect, there’s no way to break out of a trap set by those two.

The All-Star Game gives us a chance to watch the best players in the world share the court. We usually get to see how that looks on the offensive end of the floor. It was fun to see two of the most athletic players in the league work together like this on the opposite end of the floor.

LeBron and Kyrie might have buried the hatchet. 

One of the most compelling aspects of All-Star weekend was seeing LeBron and Kyrie share the floor as teammates once again. LeBron chose Kyrie to play on his team and you could see why as they showed off their incredible chemistry to overcome a 13 point deficit in the fourth quarter.

What was more interesting was the comrardare they showed when they weren’t competing. The two were often seen sharing a laugh or congratulating each other with their secret handshake.

We may never know what happened behind the scenes that specifically made Irving want out of Cleveland. There’s been lots of speculation that he didn’t get along with LeBron and that the two had a falling out of sorts. Whatever animosity that may have existed between the two seems to be overblown as the two have gone out of their way multiple times before, during, or after games to acknowledge each other.

While Kyrie demanded a trade out of Cleveland, it appears it wasn’t because of any personal disagreement with LeBron. This gives credence to the report that James wanted the Cavs to hold on to Irving despite his trade demand. Maybe as time passes we’ll finally get to the bottom of the exact reason why Irving wanted out.

Many Cavs’ fans have justifiably had hard time forgiving Kyrie for leaving. But nothing will ever take away what he did for the franchise and more specifically his performance in the 2016 Finals.

Watching him share the floor with LeBron once again was a thing of beauty. Especially when they’re going against a team starring Curry, Thompson, and Green. LeBron and Kyrie even connected once again for a clutch bucket in the waning moments of a close game.

You never know what the future holds. Kyrie even admitted that when he went on the Jimmy Kimmel Show and said that he wouldn’t rule out a reunion with LeBron in the future. While that is unlikely at best, it doesn’t appear that we’ll be seeing a longstanding beef between these two former teammates.

The Cavaliers will be back in action Thursday night as they take on the Washington Wizards in Cleveland. This will be the first time the new look Cavs will have a chance to play in front of the home crowd. We’ll see if they can carry the momentum they were picking up before the break.

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