Last year there were plenty of excuses out there for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Kyrie Irving broke his knee cap, and Kevin Love was out of action. They also couldn’t have possibly seen the Warriors coming, as the San Antonio Spurs remained the Western Conference favorites for almost all of last year’s campaign. Nobody expected Golden State to turn in to some sort of juggernaut.

There’s none of that this year. Sure, the Golden State Warriors morphed in to the best team in NBA history somewhere along the way, but it’s not like Cleveland couldn’t have spent the entire season preparing for them anyways. The Cavs knew in their hearts that they were coming out of the Eastern Conference and that they’d face an immense challenge.

I don’t buy the notion that a team that emerges from the grueling gauntlet in the Western Conference playoffs has been forged by fire. Not in this situation. Cleveland only lost two games as they crushed the Pistons, Hawks and Raptors in succession but along the way there has to be some sort of idea that they were going to spend those 12 to 15 games grinding themselves in to an impossible sword.

Isn’t that the whole point of the season?