\n<\/p>\n
Winning an NBA championship is a lot like building a modern-day hotel.<\/p>\n
From the street level, what the Cleveland Cavaliers have constructed looks impressive<\/a>.<\/p>\n They\u2019ve got a star attraction in Donovan Mitchell. A powerful front-court tandem in Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley. A microwave-type second scorer in Darius Garland. And some decent depth.<\/p>\n Watching the building take shape has been impressive. It\u2019s even got a catchy name: Remake by the Lake.<\/p>\n It started with missing the playoffs in 2022 with Garland as the leading scorer, Allen as a first-time All-Star and Mobley as an impressive rookie. Lauri Markkanen and Collin Sexton were also key players on that team, but not for reasons you knew at the time.<\/p>\n Watching the star-driven Warriors and Celtics in the NBA Finals, it became obvious: The Cavaliers weren\u2019t going anywhere with Garland as their headliner.<\/p>\n So Mitchell was acquired from the Jazz<\/a> at the expense of Markkanen, Sexton and others, allowing the streaky Garland to become a potent second option while Allen and Mobley focused more on defense and rebounding. A solid foundation had been created.<\/p>\n The Cavaliers lost in the first round of the playoffs in 2023. Unfazed, they plowed forward with the philosophy: If we provide valet parking, people will start filling our hotel.<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t work that way. Yes, the Cavaliers, with basically all the same pieces, won a playoff series in 2024, but it hardly counted. It came against a not-ready-for-prime-time Magic team, before the Cavs got a serious dose of reality in a shellacking at the hands of the Celtics in the Eastern semifinals.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s when the Cavaliers realized: If you want to attract people to your hotel these days, you have to have a penthouse \u2014 a place where people have such a great time visiting, they decide to spend the night. Or week.<\/p>\n So the Cavaliers built a retractable-roof restaurant led by a new chef (Kenny Atkinson)<\/a> and even threw in a heliport (De\u2019Andre Hunter) and a world-class bartender (Ty Jerome). Oh my goodness. With wind-swept views so crystal clear you can see the new Ohio State hardware shining in the distance, a party that started on Halloween hasn\u2019t stopped.<\/p>\n But now it\u2019s about to be Mother\u2019s Day and there\u2019s the 2025 issue: How good is our food? After all, this is a restaurant, not a fraternity date-pleaser, and if you\u2019re going to attract Mom, you\u2019re going to need more than Cake by the Lake.<\/p>\n And the fact is: The Cavalier menu isn\u2019t 5-star yet.<\/p>\n Sure, Cleveland might have enough of an assortment to deal with a second-rate Pacers team. But to advance out of the East, you\u2019re going to have to beat Boston, and the Cavaliers aren\u2019t there \u2026 yet.<\/p>\n They need to refocus to 2026 and take a cue from the Knicks, who have been there\/done that with the Celtics.<\/p>\n In order to beat Boston, you need \u2026<\/p>\n To match up with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. As currently constructed, the Cavaliers do match up \u2026 with Mobley on Al Horford and Allen on Kristaps Porzingis. In other words, they have great dip, but stale chips.<\/p>\n A bright-lights-embracing second scoring option. As we saw in the Finals last year, the Celtics can suffocate guards<\/a> with the best of them. Yes, Mitchell poured in 35, 35, 31 and 41 points against Boston this season. But Cleveland\u2019s two wins came with no Brown or Derrick White once, and no Jrue Holiday or Porzingis the other time.<\/p>\n The fact that the Cavaliers lost games in which Mitchell scored 35 and 31 points is most troubling. Blame Garland, who shot 25-for-76 (33%) overall and 9-for-27 (33%) on 3-pointers in a series in which Payton Pritchard was on the floor for a total of 116 minutes.<\/p>\n In restaurant jargon: The steak is good; the potatoes are rotten.<\/p>\n You have to take advantage of Tatum\u2019s matador-level defense. He did a great job of standing next to Dallas\u2019 offensively challenged big men in last year\u2019s Finals, and likely would get that same assignment on similarly skilled Allen in this series.<\/p>\n