Cavaliers Bounce Back, or the Spurs Have Died

↵Cleveland got smoked like salmon on Friday at Orlando, marking an embarrassing two-game slide, giving breath to the Lakers’ hope of home court advantage throughout. As such, hosting old foil San Antonio on Sunday -- that’s an important match. The Cavaliers handled business, stomping the Spurs by 20 points. The Cleveland interior defense that was shredded by Dwight Howard held Tim Duncan to six points. LeBron James, turned into a chucker by the Magic’s paint-packing strategy, scored 38 on 21 shots against the vaunted S.A. defense.
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↵Two threads would seem to extend from such a crater: either Cleveland has bounced back fully from the road of woe, or San Antonio has fallen out of the atlas. As with everything, the middle path is the right one. Any team can lose anywhere in the NBA and survive. If you don’t believe me, then remember that the Lakers have lost to the Kings once and Bobcats twice this year. In an 82-game season, even champions can afford some powderless ordnance. The Cavs are far better than the Thursday-Friday results showed.
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↵Meanwhile, a win over S.A. right now doesn’t mean the same as a win over S.A. two or three seasons ago. I don’t know how many more times we’ll hear the “Don’t sleep on San Antonio!” refrain that’s pounding grooves into my brain this afternoon, but this is not the peak Spurs ... lest we forget the minimal resistance of last season’s Western Conference Finals. Duncan has lost a piece of his pie, Manu Ginobili to be bold but honest looks like a shell. San Antonio needs breaks (match-ups, opponent injuries, infernal explosion by role players or Tony Parker) to survive the West. As such, Cleveland’s domination should come with a small disclaimer.↵