Cavaliers hang Championship Banner and pummel the Knicks 117-88
BY STONE LEXINGTON
CAVALIERS BEAT WRITER
Oct. 25, 2016 began as a day many Clevelanders never thought they would see. It ended as one of the best nights in the city’s previously ignominious sports history.
Formerly known as “The Mistake by the Lake”, Cleveland, Ohio now brandishes the moniker “City of Champions”. The change in the city’s distinction began this May when UFC fighter Stipe Miocic knocked out Fabricio Werdum in Werdum’s home country of Brazil to capture the UFC heavyweight title. Miocic, a native of Euclid, Ohio, successfully defended his title in his hometown last month in a raucous Quicken Loans Arena.
Speaking of The Q, the Cleveland Cavaliers accepted their 2016 championship rings and raised a banner Tuesday night, but we’ll get back to that.
After Miocic brought the heavyweight title back to Cleveland in May, in June, the Lake Erie Monsters (now the Cleveland Monsters) of the American Hockey League won Cleveland’s first hockey title since 1964 (Calder Cup) and first championship of any kind since the Cleveland Crunch won the NPSL in 1999.
Miocic’s and the Monsters’ titles were only the beginning. Roughly a month after the Monsters, the Cavaliers ended Cleveland’s 50-plus years of suffering in epic fashion. The Cavs rallied from a 3-1 deficit in the NBA Finals, against a team that broke the NBA regular season record for wins, to claim Cleveland’s first major sports championship since 1964.
Clevelanders are still celebrating the Cavs’ historic victory that came in late June, which brings us back to Tuesday night. If the city of Cleveland hadn’t enjoyed their embarrassment of sports success enough this summer after Miocic, the Monsters and Cavs all won titles, the Cleveland Indians won the American League pennant last week to reach the World Series for the first time since 1997.
The Indians hosted Game 1 of the World Series against the Chicago Cubs Tuesday night, just a half hour after the Cavs received their rings and the franchise raised its first championship banner on opening night of the 2016-17 NBA season. After the banner reached the rafters, the Cavs proceeded to pound the New York Knicks, blowing out the boys from the Big Apple 117-88 and leading by as many as 32 points in the second half.
“Overall, I thought we played hard,” Cavs head coach Tyronn Lue said. “I thought offensively, we were really great. I thought we moved the ball, we shared the ball, had 31 assists and we didn’t even make shots in the first half.”
The Cavs’ Big Three was dazzling Tuesday. LeBron James finished with his first triple-double of the season and 43rd of his career, totaling 19 points, 11 rebounds and 14 assists. Kyrie Irving finished with 29 points, while Kevin Love chipped-in 23 points and 12 rebounds. James isn’t shy about letting people know that he has never lost on a night that he has received a ring.
“I just think, for him, he just wanted to come out and win this game,” Lue said of James. “I know how important it was to win this game for him. Two years ago when he came back, we played New York. We had a let down and emotions ran high.”
Cleveland held a slim 48-45 halftime lead, but when James threw down back-to-back dunks around the 9:00 mark of the third quarter, the Cavs lead grew to 58-49. By the time the third period ended, the Cavs led 82-64 and were firmly in cruise control.
This season was the first time Lue has a training camp as head coach after he took over for David Blatt during last season. Lue won two titles with the Los Angeles Lakers when he played for them in 2000 and 2001, but the championship he won as the Cavs’ head coach this summer meant something extra.
“I think it means so much more because the city of Cleveland (Cavs) never won a championship, the Cleveland Cavaliers have never won a championship as an organization,” Lue said. “I think it’s a lot different in that respect. The Lakers, they won 16, 17 championships, so that’s a lot different.”
Across the street Tuesday night, the Indians took their first step in their quest for the franchise’s first championship since 1948. Lue, like many others, thinks the Cavs’ title run could help the other franchises in town.
“It definitely helps to get the monkey off the back for the city, and for the Browns and for the Indians,” Lue said. “The Indians, they have a great coach. They were destined to win, Francona’s a great coach and he did it in Boston; now he’s doing it here.
“With us winning, like I said, it got the monkey off the city’s back and now we can hold our head up as champions; we understand that. But we understand now that that year’s over, and now we have to try to do it again.”
Clevelanders may never experience a day in sports like the one they did Tuesday. Maybe they had more fun downtown when the final horn sounded after Game 7 of the Finals, or if they were amongst the estimated 1.3 million people said to be at the Cavs parade this summer. But having one team compete for a title while another receives rings for the one they claimed earlier in the year, on the same night, across the street from each other, may never happen again.
For Cleveland fans who attended either of the games separated by a roughly 100-foot courtyard Tuesday, or simply caught either of the games on television, they’ll likely never forget one of the best days in Cleveland sports history.
“It was a great feeling overall just to be a part of it, to be part of it with these fans and the organization and the team that we have,” Lue said about the title ring ceremony. “It was just a great night.”
POSTED 10/25/2016 23:21
Lake County Sentinel
