Despite the stellar play of rookie point guard Kyrie Irving, and having played the last six games in the friendly Quicken Loans Arena, the Cleveland Cavaliers dropped two spots in the weekly power rankings of the esteemed Tom Ziller of SB Nation.
Here's what Ziller had to say about the Cavaliers:
23. Cleveland Cavaliers 12-17 W: IND, SAC; L: MIA Fear the Sword Who cares about wins and losses? LeBron is coming back! Right?
Ziller's comment, thought meant to be humorous, is quite telling of the state of affairs in Cleveland. Aside from Irving, and the recently injured Anderson Varejao, there isn't anything truly noteworthy about the Cavaliers. Cleveland is just 3-3 in its last six games, which were all home games.
Luckily for the Cavs, the next three games are also at home, with the next two coming against No. 21 Detroit and No. 29 New Orleans. Also, Irving proved he is fully recovered from the concussion that sidelined him for three games by sinking the game-winning free throws Sunday night against the Sacramento Kings. As Marc Stein of ESPN said in his weekly power rankings:
It wasn't the sort of dazzling drive he delivered to beat Boston and Dallas, but Kyrie's two FTs with 0.4 seconds left Sunday night to finish off Sacramento marked the third time in Cleveland's past five victories that the rook -- after missing three games due to that concussion -- served up the Cavs' game-winning points.