Cleveland Cavaliers’ top moments from the last 15 years
#2: The 2007 playoff run.
In a year that followed the falloff of the Pistons, Los Angeles Lakers, and Miami Heat, yet still before the rise of the Celtics, the NBA seemed wide open. Partially because it was. This years’ playoffs included numerous miracle runs.
The most famous underdog team of this year happens to be a recent rival of the Cavaliers, in the Warriors. This was the year that the “We Believe” Warriors defeated the top-seeded Dallas Mavericks team in the first round.
That surprisingly, is not the greatest story of the playoffs in 2007. LeBron James would power the Cavaliers to the NBA Finals by sheer will.
The first-round matchup was against the Washington Wizards featuring Gilbert Arenas as their main star as well as great depth including Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison. The Cavs didn’t care, as they made easy work of them as they swept that team in four games.
In the second round they faced a New Jersey Nets team that starred Jason Kidd and Vince Carter as an incredibly underrated backcourt tandem. This team battled a little harder, taking the young king and company six games to defeat them before moving on to the Eastern Conference Finals.
Once there, they faced the Pistons, a scrappy team shortly removed from two NBA Finals appearances and in their fifth consecutive Eastern Conference Finals. They had faced the Cavaliers before and had often beaten them in other games, albeit closely in a number of matchups.
This year, the Pistons entered the season without the heart and soul of their team as well as the anchor of their defense, Ben Wallace.
Due to the absence of Wallace the Cavaliers were able to pull off another series win in six games against their rival team, gathering a major moral victory.
This win against the Pistons set up a matchup of the unstoppable force in the Cleveland Cavaliers meeting an immovable object in the San Antonio Spurs.
LeBron would struggle, playing one of the worst playoff series of his career. He only posted stats of 22 points per game, 7 rebounds, and 6.8 assists on abysmal shooting splits of 35.6% from the field, 20% from three, and 69% from the free throw line. Very different from the 50-point triple doubles we’ve seen from him in other series.
The Cavaliers as a whole would struggle without LeBron playing at his normal standards, losing the series in four as the more experienced San Antonio Spurs took home their fourth championship of the Tim Duncan years.