Great win for the Lebron, the Cavs, and the city!

Indians..............can you double up?!

Kevin Love's redemption on defense and how Tyronn Lue outsmarted Steve Kerr: Fedor's five observations


CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The tears came pouring out, all the way from Oakland -- on the court, at the podium and in the locker room -- to the streets of downtown Cleveland and in houses all over the state. Even head coach Tyronn Lue, who became known for his stoic demeanor throughout an uneven NBA Finals run, couldn't keep it together.

"After the game, it was just -- I never cry," he said at the podium. "I've always been tough and never cried. Just after the game -- my brother is here, Greg, just said: I've never seen you cry before. Just a lot of emotions just built up. My grandfather couldn't be here. He passed away, and all the haters and all the doubters. It just all built up at one time. Then finally hearing that last horn go off, it was just unbelievable. It didn't feel right. It didn't feel right."

LeBron James crumbled to the hardwood. Oracle Arena was stunned.

This time, tears of sadness, stemming from years of sports heartbreak, turned into an outpouring of joy after the Cavaliers ended the 52-year championship drought and James delivered on a promise 13 years in the making.

This time, it wasn't a fatal blunder or an epic meltdown at the worst possible moment, but rather a cold-blooded dagger that will go down as one of the biggest shots in Finals history. The kind of kill shot that Cleveland had too often been on the wrong side of, with John Elway, Michael Jordan and Edgar Renteria delivering the fateful blow.

This time, the Cavs made the plays with the game on the line while the other team crumbled.

This time, Golden State was left picking up the pieces of their shattered dream season and detecting the smell of champagne originating from the visitor's locker room.

Here are five observations from the 93-89 title win:

The Shot – No, not that one.

Not the one from Jordan over Craig Ehlo that has been on a continuous loop for years. The most recent one from Irving, the shot that goes to the top of his personal highlight reel, cements his spot in Cleveland sports lore while halting any chatter about his fit in James' royal family.

Irving had been harassed by Klay Thompson all night. Thompson's size, speed and athleticism clearly bothered the talented point guard. His best scoring chances came in transition, where he could search for easy shots before the defense set.

But with under a minute remaining, the Cavs forced a switch. This time, Irving didn't have to deal with the 6-foot-7 Thompson. It was the 6-foot-3 Stephen Curry.

"I haven't seen the play," Curry said. "I don't know how close I was to him. I tried to reach at the ball, stay in front of him, make it a tough shot. It was a tough step-back that he just stepped up and made. It doesn't matter how good or bad defense I played, he made the shot. So credit to him. He stepped up and took advantage of the moment. It was not a good feeling turning around and seeing it go in."

Irving used his handle to create space and buried a step-back bomb to give the Cavs a 3-point lead.

"That shot that he made tonight, that 3-point shot was probably one of the biggest shots in NBA history, especially knowing that no one has ever come back from 3-1," Lue said. "I'm just happy for him. For all that he went through last year, the whole grind this year, the media, worrying about his assists when I'm telling him to be aggressive and score the basketball, and you guys are worrying about assists, I just love that he stuck with it.

"We need him to be aggressive. We need Kyrie to be aggressive and be a scorer, and that opens up his passing. So I'm just very happy for him. This is a moment that all of us will always cherish."

Lue's right. Irving had been skewered at times for his me-first offensive style. Even his teammates weren't always thrilled, with James yanking the ball out of his hands early last season. There was doubt. There was drama. But Irving's natural scoring ability is also what caught James' attention when he first thought about leaving Miami.

Irving's variety of offensive moves and ability to rise to the moment earned a signature shoe, got him three All-Star appearances, won him Rookie of the Year and earned him a likely spot on Team USA.

When he was younger, Irving used to watch videos of Game 7's, trying to take lessons from some of the greats. He grew up idolizing Kobe Bryant and that killer mentality, resorting to that style in the biggest game of his career, turned out to be exactly what was needed.

"All I was thinking in the back of my mind was Mamba mentality, just Mamba mentality," Irving said. "That's all I was thinking."

That shift in thinking started late in the third quarter when the Cavs needed someone to quiet the crowd. Irving scored eight straight points, sparking an 8-2 spurt where he showed the full offensive arsenal, including a tough left-handed finish over Draymond Green.

Following the game, Irving said he wanted to be the best finisher with his off hand in the NBA.

He always worked on the left, but he broke his thumb during his freshman year of high school and instead of shutting down activity, Irving told me he spent a month and a half working solely on a variety of left handed shots. It paid off Sunday.

By the end of his personal run, the Cavs were up by seven points.

He scored 17 of his 26 in the second half, highlighting his maturation into a full-blown superstar, something that first started to show during Game 5 when he scored 41 points on the road in his first elimination game as a pro.

One year after hobbling off the court, watching his dreams of playing in the NBA Finals fade as he crashed into Thompson during Game 1, Irving returned to that same building and exited again -- this time as a champion.

He averaged 27.1 points on 46.8 percent shooting, including 40.5 percent from beyond the arc.

Love's redemption – The versatile power forward dealt with foul trouble in Game 6, playing 12 minutes in the home win. He finished as the only starter on the wrong side of the plus-minus.

Earlier in the series, he suffered a concussion, forced to miss the first win against the Warriors in seven tries.

The Cavs were having plenty of success while Love was putting up pedestrian numbers in his first Finals appearance -- 8.4 points and 5.4 rebounds. Until Game 7.

Love scored nine points on 3-of-9 from the field, including 3-of-4 from the free throw line. When he had a smaller defender, Love bullied his way near the basket and gave the Cavs another outlet for offense. He also added 14 rebounds, as the Cavs won the battle on the boards, 48-39.

His early fight and hustle set the tone and gave the Cavs extra shot opportunities while they were trying to find a rhythm.

Still, Love's best play came in the final minute.

Following Irving's 3-pointer, the Warriors looked rattled. They were in a hurry, searching for an offensive answer. Like the Cavs, who were seeking a switch for Irving on the play before, Golden State saw its target: Love.

The switch gave Curry a chance. He dribbled behind the 3-point line, going to his left and back to his right for about 10 seconds. But he couldn't shake loose, even after a series of moves.

Finally Curry tossed up a rushed, well-contested 3-pointer that clanked off the iron and ended any hopes of a Golden State miracle.

It looked like the matchup that would cause nightmares for Cavs fans. It was Curry, the two-time MVP, against Love who is not known for his defense.

He was a player the Warriors expected to prey on during the series. They involved him in a variety of pick-and-rolls all night that led to open triples. But none of that mattered. In that moment, when the Cavs needed one stop, Love delivered.

"I was searching for a three and rushed and didn't take what was there, which was probably better to go around him and try to get into the paint," Curry said. "That's basically it."

Perhaps. But in a one-on-one situation, Irving got a clean look. Curry had a shot to answer and came up short, a microcosm of his forgettable final quarter.

Smith's lift – The Cavs' offensive execution was lacking in the first half. As a team, they scored 42 points on 16-of-42 (38.1 percent) from the field, including 1-of-14 from 3-point range.

The best offense was pushing the pace, as the Cavs scored 13 fast break points, converting on 6-of-7 tries.

With the Warriors' defense swarming James and contesting shots, someone else on the Cavs needed to step up.

Early in the third quarter, after Lue demanded the team bring more energy, J.R. Smith answered the challenge.

He opened the scoring with a tough step-back jumper, giving him his first points since the opening stanza. A few plays later, he buried a 3-pointer. Then he canned another, cutting an eight-point Warriors lead to two at a time when it looked like the home team, fueled by the boisterous crowd, was poised to create some distance and perhaps deliver a crushing blow.

"Obviously I know what J.R.'s been through in his career," James said. "People counting him out and saying he's this, he's that, not understanding what J.R.'s been through and people just saying that there's no way he can be a winner. When our GM came to us last year and said, 'hey, we've got a deal to get Timofey Mozgov and get Iman Shumpert, and the Knicks are going to throw in J.R.' I was like, 'what? They're going to throw in J.R. into the deal?' And I was like, 'okay, I've got him. I got him.' And J.R. turned himself into not only a huge boost to our team, but he turned himself into a two-way player, both sides of the floor."

Lue gets the better of Steve Kerr – Sure, the NBA season came down to the final minute and a half. But there were plenty of decisions, from both Lue and Kerr, which led to that close.

Lue showed why the Cavs thought it necessary to make a coaching change. He was willing to alter the Cavs style and in the process unlocked their potential as a version of the Warriors -- playing with joy, getting out in transition, hitting 3-pointers at a high rate, playing with a smaller lineup and, most importantly, getting players to believe.

"He just has a quiet confidence about him," Love said. "He's very self-assured, sure of himself in all the right ways. There's no negative connotation in that or any sort of saying that's the wrong thing. He just is who he is, and we followed him from the very beginning.

"We knew what he was capable of. I played with many great players, had learned under some of the best coaches, and him just having that experience and us having a great coaching staff and extension of the coaching staff in LeBron as well, it just seemed to be the right fit."

Fit is a word that's been at the center of every Griffin decision since he took over as general manager.

Coaching stars and managing personalities is not always easy. Lue's experience playing on title teams and being an assistant with Doc Rivers in Boston, where the new era of Big Threes originated, helped him connect with this roster.

It wasn't just his demeanor or locker room speeches either. Lue made a few moves in this series that showed his coaching chops:

- He switched James onto Green midway through the series, taking away the Warriors' pet play, the 1-4 pick-and-roll.

- He eliminated an over-abundance of switching, which caused plenty of confusion in the first two games. This prevented mismatches in the post, making the Warriors one dimensional.

- He shortened his rotation, benching Channing Frye when it became clear he wasn't a very good fit in this series.

- He also switched back and forth from big in the final quarter to small, which caused Kerr to make a befuddling decision to play Festus Ezeli, who looked out of place.

"My thought there was that they were not making threes, and LeBron in particular had not made a three. And I really felt like we needed rim protection," Kerr said. "They had gone big. They had Love and they had, obviously, LeBron and they had Tristan. I felt like we needed to have rim protection. And Festus obviously gives us our best option there, and LeBron made a great play, a couple of great plays, and that helped turn things."

The Warriors had a four-point lead and it looked like they had another opportunity to seize control of the game. That's where putting in Ezeli turned catastrophic.

First, he bit on James' pump fake, even though James had been misfiring on jumpers all night, and sent James to the line for three free throws that he buried.

Suddenly the four-point edge was trimmed to a single point and it didn't even require the Cavs to run quality offense. Then the next time down, James was matched up against Ezeli once again, his eyes lit up because it wasn't the stingy Green or the pesky Iguodala, and James canned a triple to give the Cavs a two-point lead.

Moments later, Kerr yanked Ezeli. But the damage had already been done.

The Cavs were able to go on a mini-run because James and the Cavs saw the exploitable weakness.

Kerr's refusal to stay small -- going with Shaun Livingston who played well or Leandro Barbosa, who had some good moments in the Finals -- proved costly.

The Warriors' worst minutes were with Ezeli or Anderson Varejao on the court. The two were a combined minus-18. The Warriors were better all series with Green at center and Kerr made a blunder at a critical time, playing a guy who had no business in the game in the fourth quarter. Those two minutes had a big hand in the outcome.

Lue, meanwhile, seemed to push the right buttons and make the necessary adjustments in a chess match between coaches.

Check mate.

Defense – It was one of the big questions heading into the series and it became a larger topic after the first two games: Could the Cavs slow down the high-powered Warriors offense?

In the final 4:39 of Game 7, the answer was a resounding "yes."

The Cavs held the Warriors to zero points on 0-of-9 shooting during that stretch. Curry went 0-of-4, as the Warriors -- the most clutch team in the NBA during the regular season with a knack for overwhelming the opponent in the final five minutes -- looked rushed and out of sync.

The Cavs made every pass difficult and forced the Warriors to pound the ball as the clock ticked away.

The Cavs weren't much better on offense.

They were 1-of-7 from the field. But their defense in the final minutes, including a potential game-saving chasedown block by James made those struggles irrelevant.

That block doesn't happen without Smith, who made Iguodala double-clutch, giving James time to close the gap and erase the shot before it got to the glass.

Two epic events from this game.

THE SHOT! Kyrie's dagger 3 to essentially win the game.

THE BLOCK Lebron's patented chase down block.

Lebron doubters - it's over. What more can anyone do for this city?

I don't follow basketball at all, but just wanted to stop in and congratulate all the faithful Cavaliers supporters for this championship!

Ditto VT'er. Cried at the end of the game. Quite emotional.

Ain't gonna lie, I teared up too.

My only regret is I had to work last night so could not properly celebrate.

Baseball is my No. 1 game, but I remember the 0-15 start back in 1970, attending games at the Arena and the Coliseum, the Miracle at Richfield, Ted Stepien and all those years of Joe Tait calling games in the wildnerness. It's nice to have a championship and the best basketball player on the planet.

So far this year we've had Stipe Miocic, the Lake Erie Monsters and the Cavs.
And the Indians are in first place...

The whole story was so perfect, tears were certainly in order. And I complied as well.

Fox Sports Ohio are going to televise the replay of game 7 early this morning. Then they are going to show a replay of their post game coverage from that night. (Which was excellent!) Then they are going to televise the parade live at 11 am edt.

Seeing Jim Brown on the platform with LeBron James brought this to mind. The Best Football Player on the Planet in 1964 with the Best Basketball Player on the Planet in 2016. Both World Champs!

Just for fun, Google the 1964 Cleveland Browns roster. It was an amazing team, and i believe you will recognize most of the names!

I would have liked to have had more historic Cavs in attendance. Like some of the originals: Bingo Smith; John Johnson; Walter Wesley, Johnny 'wrong way" Warren, Gary Suitar.

Austin Carr and Campy Russell did TV.

I got to go to the celebration. Was supposed to fly there Tuesday night from Baltimore but the flight ended up delayed and then cancelled, with no good re-booking options. So, I drove overnight, picked up my bag at the airport at 4:30 am (it was put on a later, sold-out flight) and headed into the city.

Got very lucky in that I booked a hotel immediately after the parade date was made clear (in case I could go), and elected a corner room with a city view just to make it a nicer place to stay. Turned out that the hotel was right on the parade route (2000 E Ninth Street) and my corner room was on the second floor just over the heads of the folks on the street waiting for the parade already at 5 a.m.

My son flew in Wednesday morning from Omaha and had to wait more than two hours to get a rapid transit ride into the city, but the slow start to the parade saved the day for him. He made it to the hotel about half a hour before the parade got to us.

My nephew who lives in Westlake and his wife and some of their friends also joined us for the perfect view.

My son and I then bought last-minute tickets to the Indians game and watched them win easily.

Friendliest crowds everywhere. We were eating dinner when the shooting occurred, so we avoided that drama for the most part.