Competition at the top of the East benefits the Cleveland Cavaliers

The Cleveland Cavaliers have the best player in basketball in LeBron James and, even with their struggles, will be fine regardless of their playoff seed. Plus, with the Toronto Raptors and Boston Celtics fighting for the top seed in the Eastern Conference, Cleveland will actually benefit physically with having less emphasis on getting home court advantage.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have not had an unblemished season and they are almost certainly not going to be a top-two seed. That’s quite okay, though, because they know what it takes to get out of the East and should be the favorites to represent the conference again this year.

As many – if not all – know, when you have LeBron, you’re almost guaranteed to get out of the East. That’s still the case, at least to me. People have overlooked the “King James Effect” before.

What both the Raptors and Celtics have done to this point this season has been nothing short of remarkable and both of their coaching staffs and front offices should be recognized for their excellence. The problem for both Toronto and Boston, and all the other potential East playoff teams is what I’ve been preaching for years: to be the best, you have to beat the best.

In case you haven’t gotten the memo (or you’ve been under a boulder at the bottom of the ocean), the best player in the biz is Mr. James. The 33-year old superhero is playing like his usual self (I won’t go into all the numbers) and that’s enough to negate what the other teams in the East are doing.

Yes, even with how many miles he has on his playoff tires.

Whether it’s a quantifiable statistic or not, playoff experience and veteran savvy matters in the postseason. LeBron especially, along with Kevin Love, George Hill and others have that in droves. The Raptors, particularly Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan, have had huge struggles in the postseason. Even at home.

They’ve drastically changed their playing style, as Toronto is playing faster and is less isolation-dominant this year than they have been in previous seasons. They also have the best bench net rating in the NBA this season, per nba.com.

Nonetheless, it remains to be seen how they will respond to the pressure of playoff basketball when opponents become more familiar with your tendencies and pace.

Boston, who like Toronto, has a deep roster (and is leading the league in defensive rating), does not nearly have the firepower of Toronto offensively to keep up with the Cavs in a seven-game series. They have a middle of the pack offensive rating, which often enables inferior opponents to stick around longer than they should.

The Celtics have gotten incredible production from Kyrie Irving in his first season in their system but their offense around him has been inconsistent over the last few months, as their young guns (Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum) have had a considerable decline in production. They will occasionally have stretched-out cold spells.

Against the Cavs and the monster that is Playoff LeBron, you can’t have elongated droughts on offense. James is going to get his buckets at the other end due to his matchup advantage against Boston, and players around him (such as Kyle Korver, Love, Rodney Hood, Jordan Clarkson and others) will have a number of open looks from LeBron’s driving ability.

In Cleveland’s last game against the Denver Nuggets, LeBron displayed just how good of a closer he’s become this year without Irving. He is currently second in the league in fourth quarter scoring overall and leads all players (with a baseline of at least five appearances, an extremely low qualifying number) in clutch scoring, per nba.com. If it comes down to that need, the Cavs will be just fine in dispatching playoff opponents in the final minutes.

Moreover, both Toronto and Boston are rock solid and have had tremendous regular seasons. That being said, you would have to believe both of these squads do not want to play the Cavaliers until the Eastern Conference Finals.

Taking that into consideration, both teams bring it every single night and they still play each other two more times before the regular season concludes. That closing grind over the next month or so will be important for Boston and Toronto’s playoff seeding in regards to getting home court, and with both of these teams being young, that will matter more.

In terms of Cleveland, it won’t mean a thing what seed they get (which I’m pretty sure will end up being the three-seed), or their first round opponent. Fox Sports Ohio reporter Allie Clifton made that clear on Fox Sports One’s “Undisputed.”

Even with the new pieces going through a few growing pains at home thus far, the Cavs will be locked and loaded in the postseason with James as their do-everything guy.

LeBron also reiterated that seeding is meaningless to him and the rest of the squad, per Sports Illustrated.

I’m not going to read into Cleveland being 4-0 on the road since bringing in their new pieces too much but what stands out is what James has done on the road himself in recent postseasons. He goes to a different stratosphere that opponents in the East simply can’t match.

Having that production, coupled with the Cavaliers’ newfound youthful energy, will make it virtually impossible for East foes to beat Cleveland four times in a week span. Where they are playing won’t matter, and I just wanted to reiterate that myself, anyhow.

Cleveland will have its occasional sloppiness when Love returns to the rotation but James and company will figure it out on the fly and return to their fourth straight NBA Finals.

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