Isaiah Thomas found LeBron James for not one, but two alley-oops in the first half of the Cavaliers’ Martin Luther King Jr. Day showdown against the Warriors on Monday. It was a reminder of what Cleveland has missed while its star point guard has recovered from a lingering hip injury.
Isaiah Thomas to LeBron James alley-oops are what the Cavs have needed
IT4 and LeBron are making the Warriors pick their poison.
The first was a lob pass from IT4 that led to a sick, reverse double-clutch throwdown by James in the first quarter.
The second came after Thomas sucked the defense in after James set a screen on him out of the perimeter. After both Patrick McCaw and Kevon Looney followed him to the paint, Thomas floated a pin-point lob pass to LeBron, who finished with two hands.
The Cavaliers couldn’t do this before
While Thomas was sidelined virtually the first half of the season (as was Derrick Rose), LeBron played the point guard, the facilitator, the end-all be-all of the Cavs’ offense.
But inserting IT4 back in the lineup has given another layer to the Cavaliers, a layer that had been stripped away when the team traded Kyrie Irving over the summer. Cleveland can now run a vicious 1-4 pick-and-roll with James as the screener/roll-pop man and Thomas as the orchestrator.
And if the Warriors are having difficulty stopping it now, it could make for a much more interesting matchup in June should these two teams meet in the NBA Finals.
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